LONDON, England – The Caribbean Diaspora community in the United Kingdom (UK) showed its importance through the alliance it galvanized in helping to address the inequities in the Air Passenger Duty (APD), says Earl Jarrett, General Manager of Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS).
A major lobbying effort was carried out to influence the changes in the travel tax, which discriminated against UK air passengers travelling to the Caribbean and most of Asia, relative to persons travelling to the United States of America (USA) or Canada. The UK’s minister of finance, George Osborne, in his March budget speech, indicated that outside of travel within Europe, all passengers will now pay the same APD from April 1, 2015.
“The biggest lobbying effort in modern Caribbean and British relations has succeeded,” Mr. Jarrett declared. “This is a major victory for the Caribbean Community in the UK.”
He pointed to the untiring efforts of David Jessop, Executive Director of The Caribbean Council, who recognised the threat to the prospects for the critical Caribbean tourism industry posed by the travel tax. Additionally, Mr. Jarrett singled out High Commissioner Aloun Assamba, who brought together Caribbean High Commissioners in the UK, and led discussions at the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Seychelles.
General Manager, Earl Jarrett
“We at Jamaica National used our own Caribbean Question Time and Diaspora Dialogue seminars, to raise the issue with the UK authorities and worked to keep it high on the agenda at Diaspora Conferences,” Mr. Jarrett said. The building society and its board chairman, Oliver Clarke, recognised that the new policy was unfair to the UK Caribbean community, as well as the region.
The JNBS lobbying efforts ensured that there was direct dialogue with members of parliament in constituencies with a significant Caribbean electorate, Mr. Jarrett pointed out. About half-a-million of the UK population consists of Jamaican immigrants, their children, and grandchildren.
“Negotiations at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in November last year provided a significant turning point when the High Commissioners successfully put the APD issue on the agenda,” he stated. “This led to a promise from British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, William Hague to CARICOM Foreign Ministers and High Commissioners to address the matter in this year’s budget.”
The change in the duty has confirmed to the UK Caribbean community the importance of working together with a united voice to protect their interests, said Paulette Simpson, Senior Manager for Corporate Affairs and Public Policy at the JNBS UK Representative Office. It has also demonstrated to the community that sustained lobbying, at all levels, can yield results.
She pointed to the March 25 article in the UK’s Black Community newspaper, The Voice, in which minister Osborne explained that, “I’ve listened to this newspaper and your readers, and in my Budget I cut air passenger duty because it’s fair on your readers and supports British business.”
“Many could argue that the Caribbean Community had fallen off the political agenda,” Miss Simpson stated. “The Caribbean electorate is of great strategic importance to the political parties; and, it can make a difference in the coming 2015 general elections. The Liberal-Conservative coalition government decision to listen to the lobbying efforts regarding APD, after many years of campaigning, is changing perceptions.”
The APD was introduced in 1994 with one rate for Europe and a higher rate for the rest of the world. Using environmental justifications, in 2009 the Labour Government introduced four geographical bands, based on the distance from London to the capital city of the country concerned, and began a process of rapidly hiking the tax.
“We didn’t see the environmental justification for someone travelling to Jamaica paying a higher tax than another individual travelling to Hawaii, which is much further away,” Ms. Simpson said. “Families sacrificing to maintain links with their homelands in the Caribbean were penalised for doing so.”
The Senior Manager added that the tax adjustment will result in, “Small but significant savings for families travelling to Jamaica for Easter, Independence or Christmas holidays. Travel taxes and fees make the cost of airline tickets very high in the UK, and every little bit of relief helps.”
