Paula: $3.6B in exports due to custom-breaks

Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon attributed exemptions in import duty to the success of $3.6 billion in exports (in the year ending September 2017), winding up debate on a motion to continue these allowances for industry, agriculture, hotels and mining in the House of Representatives yesterday.

From January 2016 to June 2017, some four hotels benefited from $670 million worth of customs exemptions, she said. Manufacturing companies received exemptions of $700 million, while eight agriculture companies got exemptions of $15.7 million. No requests for exemptions were received in the mining sector, Paul Gopee-Scoon said.

In the debate, Mayaro MP Rushton Paray pleaded for a boost for livestock farmers and the Mayaro community.