When Caricom leaders meet in Port-of-Spain on February 9 and 10 they will, among other things, be asked by Antigua and Barbuda to lift some restrictions on non-OECS flour imports, particularly from T&T.

Under Article 164 of the revised Caricom Treaty, such a restriction can be imposed to “promote the development of an industry” in selected states.

The current regime obliges Antigua and Barbuda to import flour exclusively from Grenada and St Vincent & the Grenadines with few exceptions. An interim agreement last year, for example, permitted a five per cent limit from T&T.

The temporary disruptions that occurred in production lines in the two Windward Island states following the devastation of Hurricane Ivan in 2004, had served to highlight wide price differentials between flour from the two OECS countries and imports from T&T.

At the height of a public spat between Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Baldwin Spencer, and his Vincentian counterpart Dr Ralph Gonsalves on this issue last year, a press release from the Antiguan government pointed to the fact that while a two kilogramme bag of all-purpose flour from T&T was being sold for EC$3.81, Purity all-purpose flour from St Vincent & the Grenadines was retailing at EC$6.77.

Gonsalves had responded sharply to Antiguan preference for the T&T product saying the Spencer administration was clearly in breach of the regional agreement.

“I am fighting this battle not only for St Vincent & the Grenadines but also for Grenada,” he told reporters.

Spencer however suggested he was not prepared to back down and hit back in a statement that “OECS products must become even more competitive and price-reactive, particularly in light of trade liberalisation and globalisation.”

St Vincent & the Grenadines, through Eastern Caribbean Flour Mills Ltd, supplies over 65 per cent of flour imports into Antigua and Barbuda. Caribbean Agro Industries of Grenada is the other OECS supplier. Its production is now back on stream.

On Monday, Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Finance and the Economy, Errol Cort, announced plans to take the matter to the inter-sessional meeting of Caricom leaders in February.

He was responding to claims by bakers in the twin-island Eastern Caribbean state that flour was being sold on that market at prices higher than in other OECS states.

“We are in full support of St Vincent & the Grenadines and Grenada in terms of the whole aspect of flour, but we would wish to have some leeway to bring in flour from the wider Caricom, in particular T&T,” Cort has been quoted by the local press as saying.

The squabble comes as OECS member states say they are interested in pushing for deeper integration among themselves before becoming further involved in the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Ironically, the identical section of the revised Caricom Treaty being touted by OECS states as having the potential to protect them from aggressive T&T exporters is at the centre of the dispute.

In the meantime, National Flour Mills (NFM) has said it is “ready and willing” to meet increased demand from any Caricom country.

NFM corporate communications manager, Donna Cox, told the Business Guardian the company already had a good relationship with Antigua and Barbuda, especially through the export of animal feed.

The company’s Caricom exports account for between ten and 15 per cent of its total production of flour.

A similar dispute involving extra-regional imports of rice almost reached the Caribbean Court of Justice when Guyana threatened to take legal action against countries, including T&T, for not fully imposing the 25 per cent Common External Tariff (CET) on the agricultural product.

The matter was addressed at last weekend’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) meeting in Guyana with the assurance that new mechanisms for resolution of disputes of this kind be developed.