Minister of Home Affairs Heading Cabinet Sub-Committee on Sugar Impasse
The Minister of Home Affairs has been appointed to head a three-member Cabinet sub-committee that has been established to bring about a solution to the longstanding impasse between B.S.C.F.A. and A.S.R./B.S.I. Over the last year, several methods have been employed, including the appointment of Florencio Marin Senior as an advisor, as well as the appointment of attorney Julianne Bradley as a mediator, to resolve the dispute regarding a commercial agreement. Both methods failed to bring an end to the impasse. So, what strategy will Minister Musa and his team bring to the table that has not yet been employed? We asked him.
Kareem Musa
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“There are, some short term goals that we want to clear up that we want to achieve. Um, and then of course there is a long term objective of arriving at a commercial agreement. Within that negotiation, there is of course, discussion on what changes might need to be made to the, uh, Belize Sugar Industries Act to modernize their, as, you know, it’s very old piece of legislation. That is one of the things that the Cane farmers are asking for. So the Commission of Inquiry runs parallel to our subcommittee efforts, which is really to engage in a meaningful with both sides. And so while we met with the cane farmers on Monday, um, the subcommittee also met with BSI/ASR yesterday at Tower Hill.”
Paul Lopez
“So what do you know about sugar and what do you know about this industry?”
Kareem Musa
“I think it has more to do with, uh, giving it a fresh pair of eyes. I am an attorney at law, uh, and so I am familiar with. How legislation is drafted, how commercial agreements are drafted. And so any attorney, as you know, the last person to mediate in something like this was Mrs. Julianne Ellis Bradley. So what do you know about sugar and what do you know about this industry? Um, I, I think it has more to do with, uh, giving it a fresh pair of eyes. I am an attorney at law, uh, and so I am familiar with. How legislation is drafted, how commercial agreements are drafted. And so any attorney, as you know, the last person to mediate in something like this was Mrs. Julianne Ellis Bradley. She has no knowledge of the sugar industry either, and so it really, uh, involved a crash course on my part, uh, to learn every single thing that there is to know and, there’s still a lot that I need to learn.”
As for appointments to the Commission of Inquiry, Minister Musa says the terms of reference are still being worked out.
