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Parents on right, shop for school books at an Arima bookstore in August, 2022. FILE PHOTO/ANGELO MARCELLE - BOOKSELLERS plying their wares the back-to-school rush at the end of the July-August vacation (JAVA) are worried that bottlenecks in the system at the ports could lead to delays in bringing in books for the new term.
The complaints come a day after DOMA president Gregory Aboud lambasted the ports for inefficiencies and delays, saying that the ports in TT are the slowest in the region.
Newsday spoke to booksellers in Port of Spain who said goods have been delayed for weeks.
One bookseller who operates in the People’s Mall in Port of Spain said she sources her books through third-party importers.
“They bring in the books, we haven’t gotten the capacity to import for ourselves just yet,” she said. “They said it takes a long time for items to clear on the ports. Because of that they are afraid they will lose business because they have to wait so long to clear the goods.
“Right now there is a shipment on the port for three weeks that still needs to clear. That is crazy, because the longer it takes on the port, the more business you will lose. Other businesses that get their goods first will get the preference.
She said the cargo at the port consists of Macmillan schoolbooks and other brands from the United Kingdom.
Director of Charran’s bookstore Vivek Charran also noted challenges in getting schoolbooks off the port. He said others in the industry have complained about the delays at the ports and the effects it is having on their sales.
He added that the issues are not at the port alone. He said there are also significant delays at bonds, designated locations where imported goods can be stored without payment of duties until they are cleared for entry into the country.
“There is one bond where there was a breakdown at the scanner. Some importers of books were told that until the scanner was fixed, they could not clear their goods. Apparently, there cannot be a physical inspection of the goods unless it is scanned first.
“What we see is that the directives that dictate how the goods are supposed to be examined don't take into account if one of the parts of the system is not working, what are the contingencies to allow for the operating of the system without huge disruptions to declaring cargo. That seems to be a problem that keeps repeating itself.”
Aboud, in local newspapers on August 14 said based on current measurements of units of movements on ports in the region, TT has the slowest in the Caribbean. He said delays have forced cargo vessels to wait for weeks beyond their scheduled docking times.
In the report Finance Minister Davendranath Tancoo admitted that there was a crisis in customs and cargo shipment in TT. He blamed the previous administration for failing to address long-standing operational problems at the ports.
He cited severe understaffing and under resourcing at the ports and a lack of basic equipment and personnel as some of the root challenges causing delays at the ports.
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