Jamaica to abolish some trade board fees

In order to increase Jamaica’s chances of global competitiveness, the government is going to abolish a range of import and export fees payable to the trade board and other such entities.

Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Audley Shaw has indicated that “between seven and 10 of them” that have been identified are no longer relevant and will be submitted to Cabinet for consideration.

Shaw was speaking at the launch of the National Foreign Trade Policy and Consultancy for the National Trade Information Portal at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston yesterday.

“Some of these charges are extraneous and unnecessarily burdensome on our importers and exporters.... we must be practical. We cannot use the fees as a feeding tree without considering if the revenue is relevant, and if it is not, get rid of it,” he said.

“We must make our money in other ways. We need to make our money, for instance, from the volume of business, not by being overly burdensome on the few businesses that we have,” Shaw continued.

Both policy initiatives are the result of collaboration between the Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

Chairperson of the Trade Facilitation Task Force, Patricia Francis, in an interview with JIS News, noted that the fees being targeted are for “low-risk products,” which would not need a permit to be brought into the country.

Meanwhile, Shaw noted that the National Trade Information Portal “is an essential and complementary piece of a larger ongoing thrust, which includes the National Electronic Single Window and the work of the National Competitiveness Council towards improving the country’s ranking on international indices”.

An online platform, the portal will help improve the predictability and transparency of the country’s business environment and will provide foreign and domestic investors with quick and timely access to trade rules and regulations.

For her part, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith said the National Foreign Trade Policy is geared towards mainstreaming trade, international development policies, plans, and strategies.