by BARRY ALLEYNE

Government will not be imposing price controls anytime soon.

Instead, it will soon be reducing the import duty on beef and mutton products by 40 per cent, in anticipation that prices of whole chicken and its products which Barbadians heavily consume, will follow suit.

According to Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Clyde Mascoll, the chicken industry should be able to handle the impact, since Barbadians would not suddenly lose their appetite for their favourite meat, but would instead be able to save money when purchasing the other meat products.

"This will put some pressure on the cost of whole chicken," Mascoll said. The economist noted that fixed mark-ups were also an option for Government, since that would restrict price-gouging in a medium to long term time-frame.

Mascoll made the disclosure in the House of Assembly, whilst debating the passing of a resolution to grant $128 325 from the Consolidated Fund to supplement the Estimates, and be provided for the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Business Development.

He said Government did not intend to impose price controls, since businesses could in turn reduce supplies and artificially increase prices anyway.

According to Mascoll, price controls could also eventually negatively affect the country's labour force through a domino effect, if businesses were forced to reduce staff.

He said that Barbadians consume on average four times more chicken than mutton, and 15 times more chicken than beef. "Barbadians love and eat chicken. What we are trying to do is reduce the cost of an alternative type of protein. It's a form of competition that can be withstood by the chicken producers."

Mascoll added that if the chicken industry could not handle such competition at this stage in an open market economy, then something was seriously wrong.

"We have to do something in the interest of the consuming public. Such importation [beef] should not do that kind of damage. We have taken all this into consideration."

The minister argued that Barbados' chicken industry was fully developed, and price was not the lone component involved.

He added that once a country's inflation rate passed five per cent, it triggered a national concern about the cost of living ". . . but there is a difference between prices, and the rate of growth of prices".

According to Mascoll, price levels should never be mixed up with levels of inflation.