Treaty of Chaguaramas improves Heineken imports

There are two things that people say are inescapable, that is death and taxes. But some of you would probably add beer to that list. But now with the implementation of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, the tax structure has changed. And that means prices for beer are down. Since August third, the importer of Heineken, Karl H. Menzies started to sell at a reduced cost. And almost a month later, its managing director says sales have picked up.

Kay Menzies, Managing Director, Karl H. Menzies, Importer of Heineken
“In a couple of weeks prior, everybody, sales dropped down to nothing. Everybody decided they’d wait ‘til the good news happened. So, for the month of July we were very quiet around here. Before that, before the announcement was made, sales were never that great. We worked with Heineken and we worked very hard for Heineken but the price prior to the change over was unrealistic for most customers so Heineken is finally living up to its full potential now.”

Jose Sanchez
“The price of Heineken went down but that didn’t occur for other alcohol coming from Jamaica, for example. Why is that?”

Kay Menzies
“Ok. It’s part of a trade issue that’s been going on for quite a few years where Belize has been in essence violating the CARICOM treaty. Now, Jamaica is what’s called a more developed country, an M.D.C. And as a result, we can still have a little bit of protective measures applied against goods coming from M.D.C. under certain requirements. So what happened was that the government had to drop the duties against all beverages to equalize those duties along with the local producers. However, they were able to apply some level of import duty against goods coming from Trinidad, Barbados, Jamaica—the M.D.C. Saint Lucia is where Heineken comes from and Saint Lucia like Belize is a less developed country or an L.C.D. so we were the full beneficiaries.”

Jose Sanchez
“There is some talk that the government is about to introduce a tax to be levied on all glass bottled beverages. How will that affect your business?”

Kay Menzies
“Ahm, I haven’t seen the tax yet, so I don’t know exactly what the effect will be. But I understand that it will actually be more wide ranging than just bottled. I have heard that it’s plastic, cans and bottles. If that is so, I understand it has an environmental aspect to it and I congratulate the government for dealing with our environmental issues. At the same time I’m hoping there isn’t more to it than meets the eye. We haven’t seen the structure so it’s difficult to say at this moment what the impact would be.”

Menzies says they don’t have a formal program in place but they do take back empty cases of the bottle as long as they are in good condition.