Launching a broadside at Massy over its profits, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called on July 6th for a compact on prices for 30 to 40 food items and sanitary products and there is to be further dialogue on this matter.
On the sidelines of the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in St Lucia, Mottley addressed the second High-Level Breakfast Dialogue between the OECS Business Council (OBC), the CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO) and CARICOM Heads of Government at Sandals Grande with affordability being the theme.
In a video clip posted on her Facebook page, Mottley called for a compact among governments, the private sector and labour.
“I would like to put on the table a formal compact between the private sector and the government and labour for the benefit of the citizens of the region…not on everything but we have tried it and for the most part it has worked on insulating us from significant increases on essential food and sanitary items”, she said.
The PM then rapped Massy in the presence of its former long-serving executive, Gervase Warner, who is the Chairman of the CPSO.
“There is no basis – and forgive me Massy – but Massy cannot make $49 million in profit in Barbados and middle class people can’t afford to buy food. They could have made $20 million in profit in these circumstances and they would have been just as good just as happy and $29 million would have been left in the pockets of the people who have to decide whether to eat today or not to eat” she said emphatically.
As some attendees sat stony-faced and with the occasional clinking of cutlery on plates, Mottley added: “Bottomline is that is the kind of compact. We are not asking you to do it on cheeses and nuts and all of these fancy things, one cheese. And quite frankly we need to able to make sure that we leave here with a common approach if there is a common approach then invariably it becomes difficult for others to exploit the fact that you are prepared to offer on the table something back in order to ensure that we can sustain the journey rather than you making extraordinary profits but living in a society that you can’t protect yourself because your profits are going into security and other considerations”.
She then expressed the hope that “at a high level we can agree on the 30 or 40 items in terms of food and in terms of sanitary and cleaning that are essential for every family to be able to live in the Caribbean”.
It is unclear what other interventions were made on the matter after Mottley spoke but on July 9th, a joint press release from the CPSO, the OBC and CARICOM Heads referred to Mottley’s address and said that there would be further talks.
“The Session discussed short-term measures to ease the cost-
of-living pressures bearing on CARICOM households. Prime Minister Mottley made an explicit call for a formal tripartite compact among Governments, the private sector and organised labour, covering a basket of essential products. She also called on the private sector to accept lower profits on essential goods to ease the cost of living for CARICOM citizens. The need for further discussions with the contribution of ideas from all quarters was recognized”, the joint statement said.
In a brief statement prefacing the video clip on her page, Mottley said: “Food, sanitary items and basic household goods cannot keep moving beyond the reach of ordinary families while others take every dollar they can get. There is room for profit, but there must also be room for conscience.
“The Caribbean must lead from the front on this. Keep faith with the people who built these societies. Prove that in difficult times, we still know how to stand together”.
Prices at Massy outlets in Guyana have also been the subject of public comment here.
Discussion