Doux-doux.
Yuh read di TTMA statement Sunday? Real careful?
Dey saying di twenty-four month timeline “unrealistic for di regional manufacturing base.” Pause dey. Regional manufacturing base. Yuh notice how dey slip dat in? Di TTMA only represent Trinidad manufacturers. Four hundred firm. Dem speaking for us, Trinidad — not for di region. But di language make it sound like dey speaking for everybody. Dat is how di trick does work, doux-doux. Yuh use a regional word to defend a national interest.
Now di Chamber of Industry — dat is also Trinidad — coming out Monday and saying di opposite. “Timeline dat reflect regional commitment, not protectionist comfort.” Five hundred member firm, doux-doux. Meaning some of di same business owner who in di TTMA also in di Chamber. Same people. Different position depending on which letterhead dey using.
Yuh starting to see di con?
And UWI release a paper say if yuh stretch di timeline to forty-eight month, by di time it kick in, di whole framework “substantively void.” Translation: yuh might as well not have it at all. Dat is what Trinidad position do. Not pause integration. Kill integration. Di slow way. Di polite way. Di “we just need more time” way.
Now, Cheryl not against Trinidad manufacturer. Wi people work hard. Dey support family. Dey send pickney to school. But di question is: when wi say “Trinidad position,” who exactly is “Trinidad”? Is it di hardware store auntie in St. James? Di vendor on Charlotte Street? Di teacher in Tobago who buying flour from Suriname? Or is it four hundred manufacturer who don’t want to compete with Belize biscuit and Guyanese rice?
Wi political class taking di position dat suit di four hundred. And every other CARICOM country pickney been carrying di cost of dat for thirty year. Jamaica patty pay more to land in Port of Spain than in New York. Bajan cheese cost like champagne. Guyanese curry powder cost more to import from Berbice than from London.
When yuh hear “national interest,” ask: whose nation? Whose interest?
Di answer not always di one yuh expect, doux-doux.
Not always di one yuh expect.