CCJ rules against Suriname in flour dispute

The Caribbean Court of Justice on Thursday ruled against Suriname for failing
to impose a tax on non-CARICOM flour in order to protect a Trinidadian firm, in
Paramaribo’s first case before the court over Caribbean Community trade disputes.

But the justices denied damages to the firm, which had claimed it lost US$3 billion
over four and a half years owing to Suriname’s failure to comply with the CARICOM
treaty.

The CCJ ruled that Suriname breached its obligations under Article 82 of the Revised
Treaty of Chaguaramas, the regional bloc’s treaty, by failing to impose a 25-per
cent tariff on imported flour from the Netherlands as a measure to protect a Trinidadian
miller, Hummingbird Rice Mills.

The firm also named the CARICOM secretary-general and CARICOM’s council of
trade ministers, COTED, in the lawsuit.

But while the justices threw out the claim against the community, the justices
criticized the regional bloc for not being “more robust” in pushing Suriname
to impose the duty.

Hummingbird claimed that for four and a half years up to June 2010, it lost US$3
billion in business as Dutch flour flooded the Surinamese market because the country
failed to impose the Common External Tariff (CET) on goods produced outside of CARICOM
as required under the treaty.

“Hummingbird claimed that the failure to apply the 25 per cent CET on extra-regional
flour caused its flour produced in Trinidad and Tobago to be financially uncompetitive
in Suriname and as a result it suffered financial losses and lost the opportunity
to sell some 1,050 metric tonnes per month (12,600 tonnes a year) at a loss per
tonne of US$65 over the four-and-a-half year period,” the court said in a statement.

“The Community was sued on the basis that both the Secretary-General and the
Council for Trade and Economic Development had failed in their duty to get Suriname
to apply the CET from 2006 to 2010,” the court added.

CMC