B.S.C.F.A. Responds to  B.S.I.’s Position on COI

Last night, we told you that A.S.R./B.S.I. denounced Prime Minister John Briceño’s decision to launch a Commission of Inquiry into the sugar industry. It was gazetted on March nineteenth, prompting a statement from the multinational company. The miller contends that the decision is politically motivated and erodes B.S.I.’s investor confidence. Today, members of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association’s executive team were present for day two of the budget debate inside the National Assembly. They were there to support Jose Mai, the Minister of Agriculture and a member of the B.S.C.F.A. Alfredo Ortega, the Vice Chairman of the Committee of Management commented on B.S.I.’s position.

 

Alfredo Ortega, Vice Chairman, BSCFA

“Like in any case it is a pity they behave in that way because in all, before they had said that they want to put two commissioners on which they had named them, from Brazil two join the other three persons from Marishous. So they were on board long before this thing with the commission of inquiry. It is nothing new, so it is a pity to hear from them now on this date that they will be coming out and say they will not support the commission of inquiry. I think that the prime minister has to take better steps and better decision in regards to this commission of inquiry, because as you can recall, the prime minister and the minister of agriculture have mentioned many times that once the commission of inquiry brings out their information that information will be used by the cane farmers, not only the BSCFA but the other associations to get better commercial agreements and also it will assist the Government of Belize to produce a modernized sugar industry. So to us the BSCFA is not a surprise, but we believe that Belize should not admit that multinationals comes and place in our throats or in our mouths what they want things to happen in their way. Belize is a nation of laws and rules and rules must prevail. If, look, I will use this example, whenever a Belizean opens a small business and GST gets to know there is a business, they come directly to the business and investigate so that person can pay their GST. So if they do that to small Belizean people, why shouldn’t they do that to the multinationals?”