Trinidad, Guyana chambers of commerce to set up trade complaints desk, lobby govts

Last Updated on Wednesday, 8 July 2026, 17:28 by Writer

The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), and the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce (TTCIC) on Wednesday formally agreed to establish a joint complaints desk aimed at removing non-tariff barriers, a top executive said.

“What we are looking at with this MoU (memorandum of understanding) is one, to look at the formal trade complaints mechanism which would be setting up a joint trade desk…It’s going to be a template where we receive the data from the relevant businesses so we would be able to track and use the evidence to solve those issues,” TTCIC Chief Executive Officer Dr Vashti Guyadeen told a joint news briefing following the signing.

Dr Guyadeen said the two business support organisations planned to establish the desk within three months.

The T&T chamber’s CEO said from the TTCI’s perspective, her organisation would like to have the fresh produce protocol related to pineapple crowns, eddoes and peppers updated.

Also needed, she said, is a mechanism to address taxation issues. Dr Guyadeen said efforts to address those concerns would have to be continuous rather than one-off.

GCCI President Kathy Smith said if Guyana had no problems with its exports to pineapple, honey and red pepper exports to the twin-island nation, there would have been no need for Wednesday’s press conference and MoU.

Ms Smith said a working group would meet in another two weeks to “pull the information together” before approaching the Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago governments. “We will start the work by lobbying both governments, government agencies, and various private sector (bodies) on both sides of the aisle to get them on board,” she said. 

For almost two decades, Guyana has been pushing for Trinidad and Tobago to amend its Beekeeping and Bee Products Act of 1935 that prohibits the transiting of honey from foreign countries as a means of preventing the spread of diseases that could affect the beekeeping industry there.

Both People’s National Movement and United National Congress governments had over the years promised to relax the law in response to lobbying by Guyana and Grenada at the level of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

However, TTCIC President Karen Yip Chuk supports that legal protection base on available technical advice.

“Well, I think there would be some validity in it, which is why the Ministry of Agriculture and the other technical people in the area would have to look at it, because, I mean, not being a skilled or knowledgeable person in it, I would know the extent to which your whole bee colony could just be wiped out,” she said.