Vanuatu Director Trade says imported meat “rubbish”

The Director of Trade, Sumbe Antas literally labelled imported canned meat from two nearby neighbour countries as “rubbish meat”, during PACER Plus consultations at Warwick Le Lagon last week.

He said he visited a meat factory in one of the countries and found the meat processed was “rubbish”, compared to the prime quality, organic Vila Meat and Santo Meat.

The Director said, “I went to one of those factories and I’ve stopped buying meat from that country ever since, while local consumers keep buying the meat because they believe it tastes great”.

The Director made the remarks to complement assurances from the Office of the Chief Trade Adviser of the Forum Island Countries, who pointed out that the Trade Agreements between the Melanesian Spearhead Group and PACER Plus are not the same.

Chief Trade Adviser Doctor Edwini Kessie said under PACER Plus Agreement, member countries do not have to eliminate all their tariffs.

The Chief Trade Adviser said if for example, the Vanuatu Government wants to protect some of its tariffs under PACER Plus, it will have the right to do so.

He said the Agreement does not oblige Vanuatu to eliminate all its tariffs.

Meanwhile, one popular local meat factories of Vila Meat and Santo Meat were closed down some years ago with the arrival of cheaper tinned meat and fish from Fiji, the Solomons, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia.

Then Vila Meat Factory owner Dinh Van Than had complained to the Daily Post that he could not compete with the cheap prices of imported tinned tuna, fish and meat due to the high costs of manufacturing materials to continue to operate his Vila Meat Factory .


SOURCE: VANUATU DAILY POST