Rock Hard objection

Rock Hard Distribution is charging that the Customs Committee of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) has no jurisdiction to consider the classification of Rock Hard Cement or any goods under the Common External Tariff.

In a document obtained by the Sunday Sun that was addressed to the Assistant Secretary General Joseph Cox, lawyer Symone Mayhew, working on behalf of the client Rock Hard Distribution Limited, challenged that jurisdiction.

On July 17, president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Adrian Saunders, ordered the Government of Barbados to “restore and enforce” the 60 per cent duty on hydraulic cement which was imported from outside the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It had been lowered to five per cent and both Arawak and Trinidad Cement Limited filed an application for interim relief.

The CARICOM Secretariat invited Rock Hard Distribution Limited to a meeting on August 15 in Guyana to discuss the classification of cements.

However, the legal statement indicated “there was no express power granted to COTED through its Customs Committee in the Revised Treaty Of Chaguaramas to determine the classification of the cement or any other goods under the Common External Tariff”. (CM)

Please read the full story in the Sunday Sun, or in the eNATION edition.