Speaking to the media recently at the BAS headquarters, he stated that the current rate of 20 per cent is not enough, and insisted that this be increased to 184 per cent.

According to The Barbados Advocate, he also addressed claims that this would be a further burden on the backs of citizens.

"I also know that there are alarmists in this country who will say that if you do that, you are going to make the cost of things very expensive for citizens. Now let us get real because there are persons who would want to misconstrue things. This is not going to cause any drastic increase in the price of economics. It may cause the profits of some people to decline, but what we are saying is that these items can be produced in Barbados," he emphasised.

Furthermore, "There is no evidence that the people who are importing these products are actually passing on these savings to others. So to argue that the consumers would benefit by keeping it lower is just not true."

He stressed however that the rate increase on poultry imports would benefit Barbados as a whole.

"We would see growth, because if we can get our producers here producing those products what we would do is employ more Barbadians, we would be acquiring more taxes for government to pay civil servants, that is what we would be doing and Barbadians would be benefiting more," he said.

Paul outlined his understanding that a paper would be going before Cabinet soon on the matter.