Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
21 August 2023 ( Page 12 )
Co-operation between Georgetown, Port-of-Spain must replace verbal conlict
Very interesting, the response by Guyana’s Vice-President Bharrat Jagdeo
to T&T’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley’s remarks on election night, the
PM likening the igures presented by a reporter on votes in Diego Martin to
the exchange rate of the Guyanese dollar in relation to US currency.
It is not the irst time there has been unnecessary verbal conlict between
leaders of two critical Caricom member states.
In this instance, the words have centred around Guyana’s now potentially
prosperous economy because of signiicant oil and gas discoveries, and the
revenue being collected and projected on the mainland.
The response of the vice-president of Guyana was to the efect that T&T’s
businessmen with operations in Guyana are now using his country’s forex
to supply the needs of their T&T companies; the reality being that local
business companies have long complained about restrictions on their
access to hard currency here.
Only yesterday, in a manner of speaking, T&T accumulated large quantities
of foreign currency from the rent it collected from the multinational
energy corporations and the nationally owned, Petrotrin. Today, the T&T
Central Bank is keeping a close eye on those declining forex, concerned
that if business companies and other nationals are given unrestricted
access to the foreign reserves, sooner or later a shortage will arise.
The lesson to learn for T&T’s Prime Minister is to prevent a reoccurrence
of the large quantities of the forex which went to the import sector
without a compensating return. The lesson for Guyana is to use its forex to
shape an export economy, and not allow it to drain out in an unrestricted
import sector through large malls packed with foreign goods, as in the T&T
experience.
For Trinidad and Tobago, given this country’s experience, it should be
working, without disruption by loose political “ole talk”, with Guyana, as
the two Caricom countries with signiicant quantities of hard currency seek
to construct a more resilient regional economy.
Instead, the sniping between Port-of-Spain and Georgetown goes on, and
in a most nonsensical manner that beneits neither side, more so the
people of the two member states.
It must obviously work towards the best interests of the two Caricom
neighbours with some hard currency in hand and projected into the future,
to get together to work out possibilities of how the two and the region can
beneit from the sources of hard currency now held.
The objective of working together is not only inscribed in the Caricom
Treaty, but is at the core of the Caricom Single Market and Economy
(CSME). That trade agreement spells out in clear detail the need for
countries of the member states to bring together their resources to
produce goods and services for the export and home market. If such
industrial linkages are made, the region can earn increased quantities of
hard currency and also save on the export of forex through joint
production to reduce and replace imports.
The sniping is a zero-sum game in which there will be no winner, only
losers.
Does anyone between the two countries suiciently understand the above
simple logic to call for a halt to the destructive verbal jousting?