GEORGETOWN, Guyana -- Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, has said the region will fight to the end against the United Kingdom’s Air Passenger Duty (APD), which took effect on November 1.

Jagdeo, during a recent British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) HardTalk recording, said the tax will impact negatively on Caribbean tourism.

He said the UK’s move is one that will have significant impact on the already dwindling Caribbean tourism sector and should be reconsidered.

The British government said the tax is part of its efforts to cut aviation emissions as part of a major anti-environmental pollution plan but Jagdeo sees things differently and noted that such claims are baseless.

“The tax has nothing to do with the environment; it is a revenue raising tax that has absolutely nothing to do with the environment; it was never introduced as an environmental tax,” Jagdeo said.

He added that this is not the only problem the region has with the new travel tax, as the other issue of concern is the “discriminatory” way in which it is being introduced.

“Hawaii is farther from London to the Caribbean and yet they are in category B and we are in category C and therefore subjected to higher tax,” Jagdeo explained.

St Lucia’s tourism minister Alan Chastanet has said he will be in the forefront of efforts to fight "the illegal tax increase", a position Jagdeo supports.

“We are arguing that there has to be coherence in policies, environmental polices, trade polices, and aid policies to assist developing worlds to break the cycle of poverty. If on one hand you give overseas development assistance of ten dollars and by your trade and other policies you take away 30 dollars, we are in a net loss position and this is what is happening,” Jagdeo added.

Jagdeo met with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown while in Trinidad for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting and subsequently revealed that Brown has promised to look into the matter.

The new air passenger duty tax imposed beginning November 1 met major opposition from the Caribbean, Asia and other parts of the world, which Brian Deeson CEO of the Pacific-Asia Travel Association described as “shortsighted and self-defeating."

As of November 1 last, the tax payable by a visitor to the Caribbean traveling in economy class will increase by 25 percent and from November 2010, the increase will be no less than 87 percent, while for passengers traveling in premium economy and business class, the corresponding increases will be 25 percent and 94 percent respectively.

December 4, 2009

caribbeannetnews