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# The Georgetown Chamber Signed Two Trinidad Agreements in Nine Weeks. The Honey Ban They Target Has Been Law Since 1935.
- URL: https://www.lacaribenanews.com/the-georgetown-chamber-signed-two-trinidad-agreements-in-nine-weeks-the-honey-ban-they-target-has-been-law-since-1935/
- Published: 2026-08-17T13:00:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-17T13:00:46.000Z
- Author: Theon Alleyne

*Theon Alleyne, CRCP, CCEP. Beat: compliance, regulation and business environment.*

*Published 17 August 2026\.* 

*Guyanese exports to Trinidad face non-tariff barriers on honey, pineapples, peppers and eddoes. Two chamber agreements in 2026 target rules first raised in 2019.*

 The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of several business chambers in Guyana, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston in early May 2026, and a second with the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce on 8 July 2026\. Both name the removal of non-tariff barriers on Guyanese exports. The barriers named at the July signing were honey, pineapples, peppers and eddoes. The honey prohibition sits in Trinidad’s Beekeeping and Bee Products Act, Chapter 67:53, in force since 14 November 1935\. The pineapple and eddoes complaints were on the bilateral agenda in October 2019\. Guyana sold Trinidad US$60.9 million in goods in 2025 and bought US$375.7 million back.

*Part one of two. Part two sets out what a business can actually do about a barrier, including the route to the Caribbean Court of Justice that companies have used 35 times and Guyanese exporters have not.*

**What did the two chambers actually sign?**

Two different agreements, with two different Trinidadian bodies, nine weeks apart. Most of the coverage has run them together.

The first was with the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago, signed at the Guyana booth on day two of the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. The Georgetown Chamber dates the signing 5 May 2026 in [its own notice](https://gcci.gy/gcci-and-tt-energy-chamber-sign-mou-to-strengthen-collaboration/?ref=lacaribenanews.com). The Energy Chamber’s release is dated 6 May. GCCI President Kathy Smith signed for Guyana. Dr Priya Marajh signed for Trinidad, then running the Energy Chamber’s executive office on an interim basis. She was made substantive President and Chief Executive on 14 August 2026.

The Energy Chamber lists four areas: advocating for the removal of trade barriers between both countries, local content policy development and supply chain integration, energy transition and diversification, and technical exchanges on gas monetisation. GCCI’s list adds building the capacity of Guyanese businesses in the energy sector.

Marajh, quoted by OilNOW on 6 May, put the small-firm point directly. “We bring a lot of capabilities in terms of knowledge transfer. But I think what we’re going to learn, and what’s important for me with this MOU is the value added that it’s going to bring to some of our smaller members and some of the partnerships that they’re able to forge with members from GCCI.”

Smith described the ambition in the same report. “These two organizations have decided that we’re going to be the champion, if we could say that, in leading out on assisting Guyana to remove those trade barriers that we are experiencing, exporters are experiencing from the Trinidad side.”

The second agreement, on 8 July 2026, was with the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Different organisation. Karen Yip Chuck signed for Trinidad. Marajh attended but did not sign. This one is narrower and, for an exporter, more concrete: a joint working mechanism, and a desk where a company can file a trade complaint for documentation, validation and monitoring.

Both agreements sit in a space the two governments have not filled. [Trinidad has been asking Guyana for hydrocarbons since February 2024 without a binding deal](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-trinidad-gas-talks-no-agreement-2026/), while Guyana signed energy agreements with Jamaica and the Dominican Republic instead. The chambers are moving where the ministries have not.

**Which barriers do Guyanese exports to Trinidad actually face?**

Four products, and a protocol. As of August 2026 all four remain in place.

Honey. Trinidad’s Beekeeping and Bee Products Act, Chapter 67:53, took effect on 14 November 1935\. Regulation 21(1) reads: “The importation of honey and beeswax, other than beeswax included in manufactured articles, is prohibited except as provided in this regulation.”Regulation 22(2) opens with the exclusion: “Honey originating elsewhere than in any of the territories in the Windward and Leeward Islands shall not be transhipped in Trinidad and Tobago.” It then permits transhipment through Port of Spain, under permit, for honey from those same territories. Guyana is neither Windward nor Leeward.

Trinidad’s High Commissioner said in October 2023 that the law would be amended. A Guyana Chronicle report said the same thing in September 2018\. GCCI was still naming honey as a live barrier at the July 2026 signing.

Pineapples. Trinidad requires the crown removed. Smith, as reported by Guyana Times on 9 July: “We don’t think it’s advisable for our pineapples to be destemmed. Nobody wants to buy pineapple if it doesn’t have the \[heads/crowns\] on them.” The bracket is the paper’s.

Peppers, including wiri-wiri, face a de-stemming requirement that Guyanese exporters describe as commercially impractical.

Eddoes require treatment with hypochlorous acid.

Then the Trinidad and Tobago–Guyana Fresh Agricultural Produce and Forest Products Trade Protocol of 2009, which both governments agreed to review in September 2019 and which the Trinidad chamber says still needs updating.

Here is the part worth sitting with. Pineapple crowns and the eddoes acid requirement appear in GCCI’s own record of bilateral talks published on [3 October 2019](https://gcci.gy/guyana-trinidad-working-to-address-trade-issues/?ref=lacaribenanews.com), alongside honey and a poultry ban tied to duck viral hepatitis. Six years and nine months later, the same items were read out at a press conference as the reason a new agreement was needed.

**How big is the trade actually?**

Small in one direction and not small in the other.

On UN COMTRADE data for 2025, as republished by Trading Economics, Guyana exported US$60.94 million in goods to Trinidad and Tobago and imported US$375.67 million. Imports run roughly 6.2 times exports. Trinidad’s own mirror reporting puts its exports to Guyana at US$412.73 million, of which US$178.71 million is mineral fuels and oils and US$41.81 million is beverages and spirits.

GCCI presented different numbers at the July signing. Its export figure, US$60.9 million, matches COMTRADE exactly. Its import figure was US$1 billion, which is between two and three times the COMTRADE goods figure. No published basis for the larger number was found. It may include services or fuel purchases that fall outside merchandise trade statistics. Until GCCI publishes the basis, the US$1 billion figure should be attributed to the chamber and not to a statistical office.

Either way the direction holds. Guyana buys far more from Trinidad than it sells.

The barriers in this article do not explain that gap, and it would be sloppy to suggest they do. Trinidad’s exports to Guyana are dominated by mineral fuels and by beverages and spirits, categories no honey rule or pineapple protocol touches. What the barriers do is close the small, perishable, labour-heavy lines where a Guyanese micro-exporter can actually compete. The deficit is an oil story. The barriers are a livelihood story.

**What does the traffic look like going the other way?**

Harder than most Trinidadian firms expect, and this is where the Energy Chamber agreement gets interesting.

Guyana’s Local Content Act 2021 defines a “Guyanese company” at section 2 as one incorporated under Guyana’s Companies Act, beneficially owned by Guyanese nationals holding at least 51% of voting rights, with Guyanese nationals in at least 75% of executive and senior management posts and 90% of everything else.

A company registered in Trinidad cannot satisfy that. Not because of who owns it, but because it is not incorporated in Guyana. The Act provides no route by which a foreign company becomes a Guyanese one. The only relief is a ministerial waiver under section 7(3)(b) where there is a genuine lack of Guyanese capacity.

So the structure a Trinidadian group actually uses is a Guyana-incorporated entity. Even that is not automatic.

Ramps Logistics has operated in Guyana since 2013 through a company registered under Guyana’s Companies Act. It was refused a local content certificate on 8 June 2022 on the ground that it was not sufficiently Guyanese. Acting Chief Justice Roxane George ruled on 11 November 2022 that the company had satisfied the statutory requirements and that the definition of a Guyanese company had been misapplied. The certificate issued three days later. In February 2026 Wood, Massy and Tagman launched WMT Guyana, with Tagman holding 51%.

Incorporation gets a firm to the door. The ownership and staffing tests decide whether it gets through.

Smith says the rule plainly. Speaking on 27 May 2026:“Because of the local content legislation, we say to Guyanese companies and individuals, if you want to get into the oil sector, we must have 51% share.”

That is the actual shape of Trinidad–Guyana private sector cooperation. Not a merger of markets. A structure where the Trinidadian partner brings the capability and the Guyanese partner holds the majority. [Guyana has been publishing which categories carry which thresholds](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/business-cluster-guyana-local-content-engineering-exxonmobil-2026/) without publishing which companies have qualified, which makes the partner search harder than it needs to be.

**What is missing from both agreements?**

Neither chamber has published the text of either memorandum, which is of a piece with a wider habit:[Guyana approved 2026 local content plans for more than forty companies and published neither the list nor the count](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/guyana-local-content-plans-2026-no-public-register-2026/). There is no stated term, no expiry, no review date, no named coordinator and no committee in any source, for the May agreement. The July agreement at least commits to a working group.

The Energy Chamber’s other 2026 regional agreement, signed with the Suriname Energy Chamber on 24 June, has produced nothing published since.

One further point a supplier should know. Safe To Work, the contractor safety certification that functioned as Trinidad’s de facto supplier credential, is being discontinued. The Government cancelled the requirement in January 2026\. The Trinidad Express reported that the Chamber’s chairman would address concerns raised by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar that the programme had become a barrier for smaller energy companies seeking to enter and operate in the sector. That characterisation is the newspaper’s, not a verbatim statement by the Prime Minister. The Energy Chamber confirmed on 27 June 2026 that it is winding the scheme up. No replacement has been announced. Any pitch that treats Trinidad as offering a ready-made certification pathway into the supply chain is out of date.

**So who enforces any of this?**

Nobody has tried. Not on these products, and not by Guyana.

The Caribbean Court of Justice has heard cement, flour, beverages and soap noodles in its original jurisdiction. It has never heard a case about a sanitary or phytosanitary measure. No Guyanese firm has ever brought a matter against Trinidad and Tobago over goods, and the route by which a company would do it has been open since 2006.

[Part two sets out what that route is, what it costs, and the five things a Guyanese exporter can do this quarter without waiting on either agreement.](https://www.lacaribenanews.com/PART-TWO-SLUG/)

**Frequently asked questions**

**Are the two 2026 agreements the same thing?**

No. The May agreement is between GCCI and the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago, signed at OTC in Houston. The July agreement is between GCCI and the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, signed in Georgetown on 8 July 2026\. Different bodies, different signatories, different scope.

**Is Guyanese honey banned in Trinidad?**

The Beekeeping and Bee Products Act, Chapter 67:53, prohibits honey imports except as the regulations provide, and permits transhipment only for honey originating in the Windward and Leeward Islands. The Act commenced 14 November 1935\. Trinidad’s High Commissioner said in October 2023 that the law would be amended, and a Bill to permit honey imports was reported before the Trinidad Parliament in March 2024\. No record of its enactment was found, and GCCI was still naming honey as a live barrier in July 2026.

**Can a Trinidad-registered company get a Guyanese local content certificate?**

No. Section 2 of the Local Content Act 2021 requires incorporation under Guyana’s Companies Act, 51% Guyanese beneficial ownership, 75% Guyanese senior management and 90% Guyanese other staff. A foreign-registered company cannot satisfy the first limb regardless of ownership. Trinidadian groups operate instead through a Guyana-incorporated entity, which still has to pass the ownership and staffing tests.

**How much does Guyana sell to Trinidad?**

US$60.94 million in goods in 2025 on UN COMTRADE data, against US$375.67 million imported. GCCI presented an import figure of US$1 billion at the July signing without publishing its basis.

**Has the first joint event under the May agreement happened?**

No. Marajh said on 9 July 2026 that a work plan was agreed and an event was roughly three months away, virtual in the first instance. Nothing further has been announced and no Guyana event appears on the Energy Chamber’s published calendar through January 2027.