SOMEBODY had to be ‘man enough’, as we would say in Trinidad and Tobago, to inform the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) group of nations that the twin-island republic was not an ATM machine.
But it took a woman to say to the male-dominated leadership of the Caribbean what Trinbagonians have been saying for numerous years, harsh, brutal and unrefined as it may sound.
This is not to say that Patrick Manning, ousted from office two months ago by Kamla Persad-Bissessar, did not have the fortitude to be blunt about the use and distribution of revenues from Trinidad and Tobago.
On this issue, Mr. Manning and Mrs. Persad-Bissessar are ideologically poles apart. Whereas Mr. Manning saw himself as a ‘godfather’ type to the financially challenged countries, the current Prime Minister has set the tone that it does not want this burdensome title.
It’s ludicrous that Trinidad and Tobago should have to shoulder responsibility for the US$40 million needed for the CARICOM Development Fund, when member governments have failed over and again to invest in the fund and help bear the cost of implementing a Caribbean-wide security system.
There have always been quiet rumblings about Trinidad and Tobago money going to Caribbean countries under various funds and development programmes when there was so much that needed to be fixed and put right in the twin-island state.
Trinidad and Tobago has never had a problem giving monetary assistance to the Caribbean, and that will continue, but under more co-operative regional efforts, according to the signals from Mrs. Persad-Bissessar.
Since the early seventies, Trinidad and Tobago, made wealthy by its oil and gas revenues, has always provided generous financial assistance to regional countries.
But as Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar noted in her speech to regional leaders in Montego Bay two weeks ago, Trinidad and Tobago will have to be more circumspect in how it gives money to the Caribbean, in face of dwindling revenues from the energy sector, mainly gas, and ensuring that the needs of the people of her country are adequately taken care of.
She may not have scored high points with Caribbean leaders on this, and already St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves has criticised her, claiming she insulted all those big men — but she has won thunderous support back home.
Keith Rowley, the opposition leader in Trinidad and Tobago, and one of the most vitriolic politicians in the country, also felt Mrs. Persad-Bissessar insulted Caribbean leaders — she could have softened up her words — and warned that these countries may begin pulling out of doing business with us.
There has always been the argument that Trinidad and Tobago needs to support the Caribbean because it is their largest market for manufactured goods. And no one can accuse the twin-island state of not showing that support in many tangible ways.
Jamaica in particular continues to grumble about manufacturers in Trinidad and Tobago out-performing them because they get energy subsidy from their government – and which does not level the playing field for Kingston’s manufacturing sector.
It has been hammered so many times across the waters that manufacturers in Trinidad and Tobago do not get energy subsidy from the government.
In fact, the high industrial power rate manufacturers pay actually subsidises the residential power rate so homeowners don’t face high bills.
What manufacturers in Trinidad and Tobago have been doing, is investing money into retooling their operations, retraining employees, adding new technology and constantly improving their products or diversify products to bring them to internationally competitive standards.
Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo is correct when he – in other words, told the Jamaicans to stop bellyaching and take their grouse to the Caribbean Court of Justice if they felt they were on solid ground.
Trinidad and Tobago could also be crying down the place from Kingston to Georgetown on how the twin-island and their lone oil company, Petrotrin were at a major disadvantage when all countries in the Caribbean, with the exception of Barbados, signed the PetroCaribe’s agreement, which allows governments to buy Venezuelan oil and fuel through in-kind payments, and finance 40 per cent of their bills at 1 per cent for 25 years.
Petrotrin – already financially challenged — has had to look for new markets outside the Caribbean, because they were displaced by PetroCaribe.
It’s a well known fact that Trinidad and Tobago, recognising the financial burdens of the net oil importing countries, agreed to suspend the Common External Tariff (CET), which allowed Venezuela to send their shipments to countries in the region without incurring any additional costs.
Recognising that the tensions between the manufacturers need to be eliminated, Mrs. Persad-Bissessar, promising to find amicable solutions, also invited the business leaders from both sides to become involved in a three-pronged approach to drive innovative improvements, deepen alliance, and explore partnerships.
Later this year, trade delegations from Guyana and Jamaica are expected to visit Port of Spain and hopefully, business leaders on all sides can create synergies to not only take advantage of Caribbean markets but those beyond our shores.
Switching gears, there continues to be widespread criticism over the issue of governance in CARICOM and the recent Heads of Government conference in Montego Bay did very little to dispel the notions of the naysayers.
Commentary on the sluggishness and tardiness emerging out of the leadership annual meetings has moved from subtle and restrained to brazen and blunt in recent times – and this year’s was even more callous.
I thought the worst part of the entire conference was yet another agreement for more prime ministers to get together on the way forward for transforming the community into implementing decisions, and on the whole issue of governance.
I have said in the past that for one reason or the other, the Caribbean likes to set up committees, then sub-committees, then sub-sub-committees until the latter committee has no idea of what’s its mandate.
But seriously, one would have thought that given the continued economic crisis that countries in the region are under, leaders would be resolute in self-imposing deadlines to implement programmes under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
Last year, those very same countries were pleading that they could not fulfill their CSME obligations because of the global economic crisis on their countries.
Clearly, it’s the vicious cycle of inaction by the leadership that has kept the Caribbean under such shaky foundations.