By STAFF WRITER, BIS

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago — Pointing out the local and international ineffectiveness of price control in keeping food costs low, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said the government can look at the impact its customs duty structure is having on the high cost of food items in The Bahamas.

Prime Minister Ingraham headed a delegation to CARICOM's Summit on Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases in Port of Spain, Trinidad on September 15, where Heads of the Caribbean Community were encouraged to enact laws and policies to "make a healthy choice the easier choice" for those living in the region.

Chronic Non-Communicable diseases such as hypertension, heart disease and diabetes, coupled with obesity, account for the majority of all deaths in The Bahamas and the Caribbean region.

"The truth of the matter is price control doesn't work," Prime Minister Ingraham said. "It doesn't work anywhere else in the world. We in The Bahamas tell ourselves that we are able to control prices but we are not. But the extent to which the government would be able to impact upon cost we'd certainly be more than happy and willing to do so."

PM Ingraham pointed out that price control would only be effective if the government becomes the supplier of items such as food, a function, he said, that would lead to factors including wastefulness.

"Cost of food and cost of many items is very high, and the government can look at the extent to which its customs duty structure is impacting upon that. But as you have increased cost of oil, you have increased cost of transportation and you have in The Bahamas a structure that says the government collects customs duty on items that are imported and upon the freight charges that are applied to it.

"And so as these costs go up, the government's revenue goes up, [as] the government's revenue goes up people require more and more services from the government, and so we have to have this balancing act all the time."

When determining from a legislative standpoint how The Bahamas can make a healthy choice the easier choice for Bahamians, PM Ingraham indicated that there would be a number of key decisions the government would have to make regarding import taxes on meats, fruits and vegetables and alcohol.

Those decisions include:

* Whether The Bahamas should begin to impose customs duties on meat imports, as many fatty meats are currently imported into the country.

* Whether The Bahamas should reduce taxes on the import of fruits and vegetables and how such a decision would fare with the country's farmers.

* Whether The Bahamas should maintain its high tariff on chicken imports if it wishes to encourage more consumption of chicken as a white meat, and how to balance the same with production from local poultry producers.

* What should be the tax on alcohol, and how such a tax would affect the country's competitiveness in the tourism business.

During his keynote presentation to CARICOM Heads at the Port of Spain summit, St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas called on the Community's leaders to observe a CARICOM Wellness Day, an idea Prime Minister Ingraham endorses.

Dr. Douglas is the Lead Head with responsibility for Health in CARICOM's quasi Cabinet, and stressed the need to make changes at the legislative level requiring that foods cooked in public places in the Caribbean be prepared with healthy ingredients.

Prime Minister Ingraham who, following the summit, revealed his decision to eat smaller amounts of red meat, said that more and more Bahamians might decide that the healthier choice for them would be to become vegetarian. He added that The Bahamas will have to look at requiring standards for the use of ingredients in the preparation of foods in restaurants, particularly the use of Trans fat oils.