Earlier on we told you about the butane strike that, if not quickly solved, threatens to disrupt so many things from tourism right down to what happens in your kitchen. But that's not the whole story. There's another situation brewing at the Western Border which threatens to bring another kind of disruption whose effects could be even more far reaching. The Customs brokers and importers in the west have joined forces to resist new charges being levied by the Border Management Agency at the Benque Viejo Border. The effect of this is that no significant volumes of goods have left the border since Monday. We visited today to judge the situation for ourselves.
Edgar Garrido, Western Brokerage
"Importation through the cargo area is closed, completely closed today. The brokers, the transport people, and the people supporting us closed it. No duties will be paid to the government of Belize until further notice."
And this new schedule of charges is what brokers and importers at the Western Border are protesting against. They say it was arbitrarily imposed.
Edgar Garrido,
"This is a Hitler style. This is just pop: these are the new charges, that is why the people don't agree."
Under the new schedule, every cargo truck that passes through this gate has to pay $50 - no matter how long they stay, whether one minute or one day.
Edgar Garrido,
"The new charges are that if your truck just goes into the compound, just to park your truck, you will pay $50 so that you could get your paperwork ready to go and pay the government $2,000 or $5,000 more. So you're paying parking to go and pay duty. Only in Belize, anywhere in the world you go, you get a day or two."
And they're also complaining because every truck that pulls up to this shed also has to pay - just for bringing its bumper to the edge where customs can examine the contents. So now in protest, brokers and importers have agreed to basically blockade the area - and not put any trucks through until the new charges are repealed.
Edgar Garrido,
"Brokers, importers, transport
people, we are trying to send a message to Belize and tell them enough, the poor people are having hard time in Belize."
Jules Vasquez,
The freight on these vehicles is valued at tens of thousands of dollars. What's $50?
Edgar Garrido,
"Why the $50 is because we already pay enough duty and we already Border Management what is right for Border Management. This is some other fees that they are coming about without services being rendered. I agree there are people that pay $3,000 and $5,000 but then there is the poor people that import the truck. Let's say a truck that imports plastic bottles so that they fill in and sell their goods, that truck would be affected $50 to come into the compound, $50 to go to their ramp, that's $100, - and another $150 for un-loaders, because they don't provide that."
So with all the freight trucks not moving, they're basically causing a logjam in the Border Management compound. About 50 of them are lined up in here and they're not moving. But new ones continue to come across the border from Guatemala, and it could become unmanageable. And to make sure it doesn't, today police had to be called in to make sure traffic continued to flow smoothly.
Edgar Garrido,
"So now we put measures that now the brokers, the importers, the transport people are not paying the duties to Customs. We are sending a message to Ministry of Finance that if this border used to collect $150,000 a day, they are collecting right now $2,000 and that's for people walking in through the border."
Jules Vasquez,
But not only government is losing money, you all are also losing money.
Edgar Garrido,
"My friend that's a very good question. I hate that side of this. That's the sad story of what we are doing but we have to do it. We have to do it for Belize. We have to do it for our children in Belize. School supplies, oxygen for the hospital, these are the things being affected."
Jules Vasquez,
Who will blink first? Who will give in first? You all are losing money. Your clients need their products, their customers need their items on the shelves. Whose going to blink first? Whose going to give in first?
Edgar Garrido,
"My friend I surely believe in the will of the people and I know Mr. Musa and his people will really understand the situation. Belize has enough payments, this is nothing to do with politics, but the Prime Minister really needs to see, open his eye to what's going on at the border. Don't let a supervisor from Border Management come and tell him, 'this is life.' He is looking at what's going on live right now. He might not come to this border that much but through you guys, thanks to you guys, he will get the vision of what this border is."
But when we caught up with him today, the Prime Minister didn't seem too interested in Garrido's vision.
Rt. Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
"My understanding is that Border Management Board, the Board of Directors, took this decision in order to bring the fees being charged at the Western Border in line with what is being charged at the Northern Border. That is as far as I know."
Jules Vasquez,
But will you intervene to alleviate the blockade?
Rt. Hon. Said Musa,
"No."
And while the PM says he won't get involved. The Chamber of Commerce will. It issued a statement today calling on all parties to find a solution. General Manager Kevin Herrera says that doing business in Belize is just becoming too costly.
Kevin Herrera, General Manager - Chamber of Commerce
"But these $50 increase, $100 increases, arbitrarily for here or there are really not making the situation any easier. Belizean products are at risk in terms of competitiveness with those at the local level and also at the international level."
Jules Vasquez,
It seems like a modest increase in terms of a lot of the goods on those trucks are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. To increase fees by $100 or $250 doesn't seem like quite the end of the world.
Kevin Herrera,
"That's how it would seem for us who are not in the business that many of these people are in. But if you talk to them, like I have spoken to them Jules, you will see how concern they are about even these small increases because like I said, many of them are operating on the thinnest margins, if they have any margins at all. We did the calculation for just one the other day, and we are talking for a year, the increased cost for just one and that was one with modest volumes - it would have been like $15,000 a year."
While at the border we could not locate General Manager of the Border Management Agency Herman Morris for an interview. We called but were unable to speak with him. But the position as we understand it is, as the Prime Minister has said, that these are the same fees that were applied in the north and in fact should have been applied in the west some time ago but never was. Now that it has been applied, we know why it had been delayed. But it's there, and now it's left to be seen which side will back down in this Mexican standoff.
