Individuals and businesses will continue to be faced with delays in clearing goods from the nation’s ports as the Government tries to balance national security interests with economic growth.

This was conceded by the Minister of Finance, Dr Nigel Clarke on Thursday as he answered questions from the Opposition Spokesman on Industry, Investment and Global Logistics, Anthony Hylton during the sitting of the Standing Finance Committee that examined the 2023/24 budget.

The Member of Parliament for St Andrew Western, noted that decisions taken by the Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) over recent months have had an adverse impact on businesses.

“And I say that because Customs has the technological capability to monitor and to make very precise decisions, yet (1) tools were employed that caused delays at the ports and (2) increased fees and charges at the ports,” Hylton stated.

He asked Clarke whether this was in aid of revenue collection “or is this proper use to facilitate and to balance the movement of goods and services into the country during a heightened period of Christmas?”

In his response, Clarke said: “There is a balancing act, facilitating commerce is extraordinarily important. It’s also important that given the state that Jamaica is in with respect to organised crime, that our ports are not used as points through which illegal guns and ammunition can get through”.

Clarke said the JCA has “joined in the effort of the government to wage battle against the scourge of illegal guns and a part of that process requires making sure that goods that flow across our borders are not used to conceal ammunition or conceal weapons”.

The finance minister noted that the number of gun seizures by the JCA at the ports over the last 12 months “has gone up considerably” including over the Christmas period into January.

This includes the seizure of 54 guns and 101 rounds of ammunition at Freeport in Montego Bay, St James on February 3. Before that, 20 firearms were seized at the same port in January.

“Unfortunately, that requires an intensive and intrusive scanning process to deliver those kinds of results,” Clarke said.

He told Hylton that “during peak time, this has the downside of what you describe but at this point in our development the trade-off is in favour of ensuring that illegal weapons do not enter our country”.