AMMAN : Jordan is paying the price for its national stand on Jerusalem, which forced the government to enact harsh decisions under such difficult circumstances, acting prime minister, Mamdouh Abbadi, said on Wednesday. Brothers before friends refrained from helping us this year and the year before, but we cannot give up on Jerusalem, this is what we say and we will pay the price. We are counting on our people to bear the unbearable, for Jerusalem,” Abbadi said during a meeting with farmers and agriculture sector leaders. The Jordan Farmers Union (JFU) arranged for the meeting at the Sports City in Amman and invited the government for a dialogue as all components of the agricultural sector strongly condemned the government’s recent imposition of a 10 per cent tax on some agricultural inputs and outputs without prior consultation with sector representatives. At the meeting, Abbadi pledged that the government would reconsider its decision. Decisions are not sacred and they can always be revisited. We are here to say that we believe in dialogue,” Abbadi told some 300 attendants. JFU President Oudeh Rawashdeh said at the meeting that the agriculture sector was struck more than once over the past few years, noting that if the government fails to demonstrate that it is serious in saving the sector, then agriculture in Jordan will cease to exist and importing will become the country’s alternative.
Representatives of the agriculture sector last week held a press conference in which they warned that the decision of imposing taxes on certain fruits, vegetables and agricultural machineries would have negative ramifications on the sector and the thousands of families it supports. Such measures include resorting to judiciary, stopping the supply of produce to the local market as well as “other escalatory measures which will be announced in due time”, according to the union. Imposing the tax would limit the use of and trade in agricultural technologies and machineries, the union said, warning that it will also cost Jordan the loss of its international markets and compromise the competitiveness that the country’s agricultural produce enjoy abroad. The union said that the decision would also discourage investment in agriculture, drain the income of many families and lead to a hike in prices of food commodities and agricultural produce.