PORT OF SPAIN — The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association issued a Wednesday morning statement welcoming the Kingston meeting’s “framework of intent,” calling the outcome “a sensible pause that allows for proper consultation with regional industrial sectors before binding commitments are made.”
The TTMA statement, signed by the association president, framed the result as validation of the government’s three counter-amendments. The forty-eight-month timeline that the government tabled was not formally adopted, but the framework’s “pace appropriate to member-state circumstances” language is, the TTMA notes, “fully compatible” with the longer timeline.
The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce issued a sharper Wednesday statement. The Chamber called the framework “capitulation by language” and said it “represents the lowest possible threshold of regional commitment.” The Chamber statement also asked the Minister of Trade to clarify, in Parliament, why the government tabled three counter-amendments rather than seeking a side agreement that would have allowed harmonization to proceed for willing states without forcing T&T participation.
This is not a small distinction. Several CARICOM frameworks — including the original 1989 Grand Anse Declaration — provide for variable-geometry implementation, where willing states can move ahead without unanimity. The Chamber is asking why the government chose the unanimity-veto path when alternatives existed.
The UWI Sir Arthur Lewis Institute, which last week called a forty-eight-month timeline “substantively void,” issued a follow-up paper Wednesday morning describing the actual Kingston outcome — which has no timeline at all — as “even less viable than the timeline we previously analyzed.” The paper’s lead author told Trini Dispatch the framework “preserves the appearance of CARICOM consensus while removing the substance of CARICOM commitment.”
The Minister of Trade has not responded to the Chamber’s request for a parliamentary statement. The Minister has not given a press conference since Saturday. The Minister’s office did not respond to Trini Dispatch requests for comment Tuesday or Wednesday.
The TTMA represents roughly four hundred member firms. The Chamber represents over five hundred. UWI Sir Arthur Lewis represents the regional academic economic-policy community.
Two of the three say the outcome is bad for the region. One says it is good for the four hundred manufacturers.
The government’s position has aligned, again, with the four hundred.