A parliamentary committee today examined how trade policy can strengthen food security and cut the country's seven-billion-dollar food import bill. The Trade Ministry says boosting exports and tightening import regulations are at the centre of its strategy.
00:00The Joint Select Committee on Trade met today zeroing in how policy can drive food security and reduce the nation's $7 billion annual food import bill.
00:12Committee Chair Dr. Marlene Atts, an economist, framed the urgency of the issue.
00:17This dependency on imported food because the data show that more than three-quarters of our food supply in Trinidad and Tobago is sourced externally.
00:26And that brings perhaps the second overarching context for this inquiry, that that dependency, the fact that we're dependent, three-quarters of our food supply is dependent on external sources, exposes us to external shocks.
00:40The Trade Ministry says increasing export earnings remains a top priority.
00:45We are targeting U.S. $2 billion in additional export revenue within two years and U.S. $5 billion within five years alongside investment in flows of U.S. $3 billion within two years and U.S. $9 billion within five years.
01:03The acting PS, however, pointed out that the distribution of foreign exchange falls outside of her ministry's remit.
01:10But they've been actively looking at ways to reduce imports.
01:14One of the measures that we're examining right now is to examine the tariff structure to help support the competitiveness of our manufacturers to compete with foreign products.
01:28That is something that we are looking to roll out in a couple of weeks.
01:33Priority sectors like food and beverage are being directly engaged for targeted support.
01:39Bringing in companies, having discussions with them, asking them what are your export targets, what are your growth targets, how do you plan to achieve those targets and what do you need to achieve it from the government.
01:55So we have been doing sectorally, we have prioritized certain sectors where we see a lot of growth potential and a lot of forex usage as well.
02:06So we have prioritized those.
02:07But as imports fall, the health ministry wants to ensure what comes in is nutritious.
02:13Minister in the Ministry of Health, Richard Citeran, says plans for mandatory nutrition labeling are advancing.
02:20At the Ministry of Health, we are now producing a policy document, which would be an attempt to try to implement front-of-packaging labeling on food items.
02:31And this happens in many other countries.
02:36And what that would entail is an octagonal label on many food items, on all food items.
02:44Should that food have high sugar, high fat, high sodium, you know, certain questionable implements that would be not beneficial to someone's health,
02:57but we would want to put that as a label on all food products.
03:02The policy will go to cabinet in the coming months before moving to what legislation.
03:07Former finance PS Fishnu Danpul pressed the ministry on why reduced tariffs don't always translate to cheaper supermarket prices.
03:17Headline inflation is 0.4 percent.
03:20But I'm not seeing, the consumer is not seeing that in the supermarket.
03:25Why?
03:31So with respect to the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism's remit,
03:35and we have to say that we do what we can on our side, whether it be through the common external tariff
03:41or whether we see through trade agreements negotiated in terms of duty-free access to products,
03:46whether it be, but we cannot set the price that is in the supermarkets.
03:51For now, consumers are being urged to shop smart while the Consumer Affairs Division says it continues to investigate complaints of price gouging.
04:01You have someone who is guilty of price gouging, right?
04:06How do you respond to them?
04:08What kind of teeth do you have?
04:11An investigation is conducted by the Consumer Affairs Division,
04:14but right now we are also revising our consumer legislation
04:18so that it can cover some of those things to provide more teeth in terms of how we act and respond to those types of matters.
04:27Yeah, but is there a penalty attached to this?
04:30What is it?
04:31So in terms of the revision of this legislation,
04:33because we've recognized that that has been the challenge,
04:36and we are seeking to address it through this.
04:38So I understand that there is draft legislation right now to be taken to address some of these matters,
04:43which provides a stronger committee to investigate
04:47as well as provide some more teeth into this matter in terms of action that can be taken.
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