Consultation Must Continue to Understand the Impact of Proposed Law

Marcello Blake

The Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry believes that details of the bill remain unclear and need buy-in before being made into law. The bill will be taken to the House Committee level on Monday and the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry says that it will be placing its position on record.  B.C.C.I. believes that consultations must continue so that businesses can understand how they will be affected. The Chamber believes that the timing for the trade license reform is of concern.

Marcello Blake, President, Belize Chamber of Commerce & Industry

“That’s a challenging one because for our members lot of them are still trying to recover from the pandemic. So it is not an ideal time for any increase in the cost of doing business. And so while this has been in the making for some time, hence the reason why I said there needs to be further consultation and dialogue before this is fully signed into law for us to then be able to provide our input into the timing. And we do appreciate that there has been the conversation over the years of delaying the implementation of what the trade license could look like. There are some businesses that may see a decrease and others may see an increase. For us, at this point, it is more coming back to the table and being able to consult because as you mention the footprint. The details of the impacts on the various sectors has not been finalized and so that is kinda one of those items that still out there that has not been pinned down in its details.”