A task force has been established by the Cabinet to address the impacts of the recent increase in tariffs by the United States of America, on the price of food in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
This was announced by Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour, Hon. Saboto Caesar earlier today.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced his Global Reciprocal Tariffs with a number of Caribbean countries facing reciprocal tariff rates of 10%.
Minister Caesar noted that among commodities that this country exports to the United States includes dasheen and other root crops.
“In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, we produce significant quantities of food which are exported to the region and also to the extra region. And we are a major exporter of dasheen and other root crops to the United States of America. With the new tariff system, what we are going to notice is that food entering the United States of America for re-export attracting significant tariff increases. This will be passed on to consumers in receiving countries. Therefore, we have to manage the issue of imported inflation.”
The Agriculture Minister said that one sure way of ensuring that this country is not negatively impacted by the changes which are taking place globally is to produce more food within our borders.
He said the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation, Industry and Labour, will soon be ramping up activities in an effort to improve and increase the production of food locally.
“One sure way of ensuring that we are not negatively impacted by the changes which are taking place globally is to produce more food within our borders. Over the upcoming days and weeks, we are going to see an increase in the activities by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, Rural Transformation Industry and Labor as it pertains to our quest to improve, to increase the production of food in our country. Already, we have witnessed over the past few days, we have imported 17,500 day old broiler chicks and these were distributed to farmers”
