TRADE and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon says government has been working consistently over the last nine years to ensure citizens can continue to buy basic food items at affordable prices.
In contrast, she said, the UNC did the exact opposite when it was in office from 2010-2015.
Gopee-Scoon was speaking in the 2024/2025 budget debate in the House of Representatives on October 7.
She rejected repeated UNC claims that government has done nothing to make basic food affordable.
"Even in a period of declining revenues, since 2015, every year the government has gotten a suspension of the CET (common external tariff) on a number of basic food items, including canned corned beef, sardines and tuna, cheddar cheese, canned tuna, black tea, canned sardines and pharmaceuticals, with revenue foregone of over $1.1 billion, making these goods cheaper and providing savings to all consumers."
She reminded MPs discussions about the CET occur at the level of Caricom's Council for Trade and Development, which deliberates on the tariffs on different commoodities entering the region.
Gopee-Scoon identified vegetable/soya bean oil, olive oil, peanut butter, black pepper, cereal, condensed milk, instant coffee and ground coffee as other basics from which value added tax (VAT) has been removed to make them affordable.
She said the UNC continues to "hoodwink" the population that it removed VAT on 7,000 basic food items while it was in government. She said information from the ministry showed these items were luxuries and not basic foods.
"The VAT-exempt list is principally designed to support the poor and the vulnerable in society. It was not meant to buffer those with greater purchasing power."
[caption id="attachment_1092974" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Shopping cart filled with essential food items at a grocery store in Port of Spain. - File photo by Faith Ayoung[/caption]
Government MPs thumped their desks when Gopee-Scoon said, "As a result, this government sought to bring the VAT-exempt list back to its original moorings by removing luxury food items such as dates, artichokes and maraschino cherries."
In responsible to inaudible comments from some UNC MPs, she added that maraschino cherries were frequently bought by certain people who enjoy having "cocktails, morning, noon and night."
The UNC, she continued, wished the population would forget about its last stint in government.
"The poor performance by the UNC was characterised by a 71 per cent increase in food prices from 2010-2015."
Gopee-Scoon said this happened during a period when there was no war, pandemic or supply-chain disruptions.
"It was a time of plenty, where oil prices were above US$100 a barrel – and yet still the UNC government did nothing to advance agriculture and food production in Trinidad and Tobago, or significantly boost manufacturing."
With inflation recorded at 0.3 per cent in July, Gopee-Scoon said under the UNC that figure was 8.5 per cent in 2014 and 5.5 per cent in 2015.
Referring to Opposition Leader Kamla Pe
