PNP's Campbell seeks to explain proposal for tax on imported food

By Lorraine Walker    

 

Opposition Spokesman on Agriculture Dr. Dayton Campbell has sought to explain recent comments he made in relation to a tax on imported food to establish an agriculture fund, as well as a proposal to stop the importation of Irish potato and onion.

 

Dr. Campbell made the remarks at a political meeting in South East St. Elizabeth on Tuesday where he announced that "Now is the time when we must put a little thing on the imported food into the country by creating an agricultural fund." He also announced that a People's National Party government intends to "take Irish [potato] and onion out of the importation basket" within two years.  

 

The comments drew criticism from some quarters, including the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, with the party's spokesman Marlon Morgan indicating that a special tax on imported food will lead to an increase in the price of basic food items and will unduly burden the Jamaican people.

 

But speaking with Radio Jamaica News on Thursday afternoon, Dr. Campbell sought to explain that the proposed fund to develop and modernise the agriculture sector would be financed from existing taxes on imported food. 

 

"Something that a lot of people are not mindful of is that there's currently some stamp duty and common external tariffs on some of the imported produce. There's some that we don't charge any, whether you'd want to term it as levy, on. There's no proposals to either increase those, or to bring any additional ones. It's to take from those to create the funding for agriculture, in a similar way that funds were taken to create the Universal Service Fund," he expained. 

 

On the matter of the importation of onion and Irish potato, Dr. Campbell indicated that he was not proposing a ban on their importation within the first two years of the next PNP administration. Instead, he said the aim would be for the country to become more self-sufficient in Irish potato and onion production. 

 

"I am saying that there are items that we can produce locally to satisfy the demand. So Irish and onion and those things are things we have the ability to produce here in Jamaica. In 2014, Roger Clarke, of blessed memory, did take Irish potato out of the importation basket. So once you know the quantity that you use annually, you can put the necessary acreage under production so you can be self-sufficient in the items. I can't see how that is controversial. That should be the desire and one of the mandates of the Ministry of Agriculture to work towards that happening," he said.