BELIZE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SAYS ANTI CONTRABAND CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN EFFECTIVE

October 05, 2006

The Belize Chamber of Commerce introduced an anti contraband campaign a year ago. A committee with the participation of the Customs Department was established to carry out several activities to stop the contraband of goods into Belize. Chamber’s Anti Contraband Committee member, Charles Woods says that in the last year the committee has been effective in creating awareness and establishing dialogue with the Custom’s Department but has had some difficulty in stopping the contraband itself. Woods speaks about contraband is affecting the Belizean society.

Charles Woods:

“You have huge volumes of contraband coming into the country every year. You have containers and then you have small peddlers who bring contraband products in their pockets in their knapsacks and so on. And then also you have the people who use and consume contraband who would buy a beer or a pack of cigarettes or some other product that is contraband. So it’s all sectors of the economy and it’s very wide spread and very diverse; across all the districts and across all ethnic groups and so on. The impact on Belizean businesses and the economy at large remain because the problem has gone away in fact we would argue that it has gotten worse and the way it affects businesses and the economy is that it really destroys industry because the legitimate products that are either made in Belize or sold in Belize that have legitimately paid their import duties and tariffs are not competing fairly because the contraband commodities avoid all those things. So what happens, consumers would buy the cheaper product that has no duty whatsoever or no tariffs but it’s not generating any jobs because if those products in Belize were produced in Belize and their not being sold as result of the contraband then the companies that produce them face major problems.” 

Woods explains how contraband is affecting the national economy.

Charles Woods:

“The government does not collect as much revenues as it should and as a result the government would have to look at other means of revenue collection which may be in the form of taxes and other forms of revenue collection that it would not affect if there was no contraband or very little contraband because then it would be getting it’s normal source of revenue so it affects everybody and it continues to affect everybody because the problems still exist. When we see people engage in contraband trade, we need to become very proactive and the committee has put different measures in place to assist the public at large in helping us solve this problem. You can call for example crime stoppers at 0-800-922-TIPS and report what you see anonymously and also if you are consuming contraband products please understand that it’s affecting you, it’s affecting your economy and please stop doing so because it really is a big problem and eventually it will affect you even if you don’t think it’s a problem for you right now.”

Charles Woods, member of the Chamber’s Anti – Contraband Committee. As part of the anti contraband campaign, cameras will soon be installed at the border crossings. Woods says the funding has been allocated and that implementation of that project should soon take place.

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