Above: Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Barbados is actively working at the CARICOM and international levels to ensure that the country does not face unfair competition with its rum exports, according to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.

Caribbean rum producers have been increasingly dismayed over what they see as unfair advantages given to producers in the US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Last week, CARICOM’s COTED council said it had “serious concerns” about what it considered a “threat” to Caribbean rum in the US.

“The rum industry is too important to Barbados,” said Stuart, who was speaking on a visit to the Foursquare Rum Distillery. “Yes, it is a CARICOM issue, but I don’t think any CARICOM country has any reason to be as concerned about this as Barbados. Rum is assuming an importance for Barbados that we cannot afford to ignore. So this is a front-burner issue and we are following it very closely.”

Stuart said he had recently held “lengthy” discussions with the US Assistant Secretary of State on the matter, also holding talks with Barbados’ Ambassador to the United States, John Beale, and Barbados’ Ambassador to CARICOM Robert Morris.

“We anticipate that if there is not a reversal or some kind of accommodation, that it may have to reach the WTO,” he said. “But we are waiting for the outcome of a Geneva meeting.”