And, regarding another development in the sugar industry, both the opposition and ASR/BSI are singing from the same hymn sheet. ASR/BSI was first to speak out today about new regulations called: SUGAR INDUSTRY (LICENCE TO IMPORT/EXPORT SUGAR) REGULATIONS, 2023. They say these regulations will soon be taken to the House of Representatives.
But, BSI has written to the Ministry of Agriculture saying that it finds the regulations, quote, "retrograde, unnecessary, burdensome and discriminatory.
These new regulations give the government-controlled SICB inordinate and disproportionate power to interfere with the routine operations of a private sector business, such as deciding whether it is a business in good standing and whether it should be issued with an annual license to export sugar.
In addition, the disclosure requirements to obtain this license are unduly intrusive, unreasonable, disproportionate and harmful to BSI's commercial interests. These requirements are not seen in any other industry in Belize. In fact, sugar remains one of a handful of exports that requires a permit for exportation." End quote.
Patt also commented on this today when we spoke to him via Zoom:
Hugo Patt, UDP Deputy Leader
"You have to go to the stakeholders for them to have that buy-in. You must be able to say look we want to do this; this is what we want to achieve, these are the new regulations that we want to approve. But you must have the input of all the stakeholders. Just from the release that BSI sent out a while ago, I get the impression that there wasn't enough consultation and BSI certainly will say look, if I am not mistaken, I saw that there will be some sort of action leading towards the courts and this is precisely what's happens whenever you are doing things that are I could say arbitrary and this is the way that BSI is feeling. But if the minister of agriculture or the agriculture ministry had done proper consultations, I don't think that we would have been at this point in time and so I call on this administration to re-think its position, particularly because I understand that they have every intention of passing this new regulation at the next sitting of the house."
The statement from the UDP says the new proposed regulations are, quote, "a blatant betrayal of its campaign promise to curtail Ministerial control and powers especially in an instance where the Minister of Agriculture has a clear conflict of interest."
