CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Barbados
American e-commerce giant, Amazon,
has started applying a Value Added
Tax (VAT) at a rate of 17.5 percent on
goods shipped as of last month, Barbados
Today reported.
Amazon Web Service
(AWS) reported
to its customers with
Barbadian shipping
addresses to inform
them that the island’s VAT would be
applied to goods shipped from March
1, 2020.
The Seattle-based company detailed
its intention in an e-mail correspondence
titled, “Important Announcement”
in which it noted that the new measures
are consistent with tax legislation
which came into effect on Dec. 1, 2019.
The company said that a tax compliant
invoice would be issued to Barbadian
customers from April 1, this year.
The correspondence was reportedly
sent to all AWS customers whose
records indicate that their billings
address or contract address is in Barbados.
It explained to customers that
the website calculates taxes based on
the customer location, which is determined
by Amazon’s account location
hierarchy.
To ensure compliance, Amazon
has urged Barbadian residents whose
accounts are not listed in Barbados, to
update their details by visiting the billing
address and contact address page of
the AWS billing console.
In 2019, legislation introduced to
allow the Barbados Revenue Authority
(BRA) to outsource tax-collecting powers
to an online third- party and the
measure was to be introduced by July 1,
but this also was unsuccessful.
Caribbean
The University of the West Indies
(UWI) recently launched a task force
to assist with the mobilization of the
region’s public health providers to deal
with the coronavirus (COVID-19) that
has so far killed more than 40,000 people
and affected more than 800,000 in
200 countries around the world.
The region’s premier
educational institute
said that the task
force will be chaired by
Professor Clive Landis,
pro-vice chancellor for Undergraduate
Studies and former director of the
George Alleyne Chronic Disease, who
has considerable experience in the field
of Caribbean public health.
Professor Landis said the primary
emphasis of the COVID-19 task force
will be to provide accurate and reliable
information through UWItv and other
channels and other channels of communication.
The University is currently delivering
Caribbean L 4 ife, April 10-16, 2020
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
A brigade of health professionals, who volunteered to travel to the West Indies, raise their right fi st as they
sing their country’s national anthem, in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The medical teams traveled
on Saturday to the dual-island country Saint Kitts and Nevis, to assist local authorities with an upsurge of
COVID-19 cases. See story on Page 14. Associated Press / Ismael Francisco
a software engineering degree program
at its joint institute in Suzhou, China
and has a large registered cohort of Caribbean
students. It is engaged directly
with public health officials in Suzhou,
Caribbean diplomatic corps in Beijing
and the leadership of its partner university,
the Global Institute for Software
Technology (GIST).
The university said that the membership
of the task force is drawn from
the regional UWI medical facilities and
external experts experienced in the
laboratory and field deployment of an
active scientific approach.
Haiti
The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) says it is working “expeditiously”
to honor a request from Haiti for urgent
aid amid the coronavirus (COVIV-19)
pandemic.
Managing director
of the Washingtonbased
financial institution,
Kristalina Georgeiva
said the IMF staff
is working expeditiously to respond
to this request so that a proposal can
be considered by the fund’s executive
board in the coming weeks.
“Our objective is to provide rapid
support to help Haiti address the effects
of a mounting health crisis and support
spending on health and social benefits
to limit the human costs of COVID-19,”
she added.
She said the Haitian government is
seeking to help protect the people of
Haiti from the impact of this rapidlyevolving
global pandemic and to prevent
the further spread of the virus.
In light to the urgent need to step up
action to protect the Haitian people and
the economy, the IMF director said the
Haitian government has requested the
IMF’s financial support through the
Fund’s Rapid Credit Facility.
Suriname
Suriname-based Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) Competition Commission
(CCC) says while the coronavirus
pandemic presents an unprecedented
challenge for the small economies of
the region, it nonetheless believes those
challenges to commercial and consumer
welfare can be minimized.
CCC, which was
established to help
enforce CARICOM
Rules of Competition
and to regulate competition
in the CARICOM Single Market
and Economy (CSME) said; “with member
states closing borders, recommending
social distancing and closure of
main economic activities such as dining
out and other community gatherings, it
is fair to say that COVID-19 has not only
impacted the very social fabric of member
states, but also commercial and
consumer welfare within the region.”
The CSME allows for the free movement
of goods, skills, labor and services
across the 15-member regional integration
movement.
The CC said it is natural that small to
medium businesses would be required
to scale down their operations to protect
employees, resulting also in disruptions
in the delivery of services and
products to consumers.
It said there have also been notable
surges in the demand for groceries, personal
protective equipment, and healthcare
items in recent weeks across the
region, leading to shortages in supplies
of these products.
“These demand and supply shocks
have invariably led to price increases
throughout the member states, to the
detriment of their most economically
vulnerable consumers, mainly the
impoverished,” it said.
St. Lucia
St. Lucia’s Acting Commissioner of
Police, Milton Desir has warned criminals
that law enforcement officials will
take threats against their lives seriously
after an escaped prisoner was shot dead
on Dennery Bbeach, east of the capital,
Castries.
Police said Markin
Marquis, a murder
suspect, was planning
to leave the island by
boat and was armed at
the time of the confrontation with the
THE NEWS FROM BACK HOME
Cuba lends a hand
Continued on Page 4
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