TRADE-ST.LUCIA/TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Looking For Common Ground

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Wesley Gibbings

PORT OF SPAIN, Nov 6 1998 (IPS) - Even as Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of St Lucia and his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart, Basdeo Panday discussed the deepening of relations between the two Caribbean territories, business interests in both countries squared off for what was described as a trade battle.

But during his current weeklong visit here, Anthony has scoffed at the suggestion that the current debate over the importing of Trinidad- made sodas even remotely resembles a trade war.

Anthony decidedly downplayed the issue with journalists Wednesday saying only that he was “a little amused by statements in Trinidad and Tobago that there is a trade war”.

The parties involved have however been using less diplomatic language and the St Lucia Small Business Association (SLSBA) has issued a statement condemning the Anthony administration for allegedly reneging on a promise to keep a shipment of Trinidad and Tobago made sodas off St Lucian supermarket shelves.

St Lucian authorities recently allowed a Trinidad and Tobago soft drink manufacturer to export carbonated drinks into Castries despite objections from the business community there.

SLSBA President Michael Willius has expressed “profound disappointment” at the repeated failure of the government to keep an undertaking given to the local private sector which he said included a curb on the number of drinks imported into the country.

Carbonated beverages are protected under Article 56 of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) agreement governing trade within the community. It is a protection measure which benefits mostly the smaller sub- regional members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to which St Lucia belongs.

Anthony however said here that there was no reneging on promises. He has insisted that the Trinidad manufacturers had entered into a joint relationship with a St Lucian concern for the construction of a soft drink factory due to begin operations later this month and employing nearly 75 people.

The latest 10,000- case shipment of beverages from the company into St Lucia was described by the company as products imported for “marketing purposes”.

“Once the factory became operational, there would be no grounds for opposition since it would qualify as a St Lucian company and hence afforded the same protection under Article 56 which is being provided to the OECS countries,” Anthony said.

“It would have no difficulty with production level once the factory is commissioned … there is no question of allowing the factory into St Lucia,” he said.

Anthony urged other manufacturers in both countries to utilise “that kind of model” for the future socio-economic development of the region – a point underscored by Panday who urged that “our respective private sectors be encouraged to work together in the spirit of cooperation for development”.

At least one area already identified for such cooperation between the two countries is the shipping industry, where the private sector is being encouraged to explore the potential for operating a regular schedule on a profitable basis.

A joint declaration signed by the two countries Wednesday emphasised the need for greater cooperation in a number of areas ranging from tourism to health and the financial service.

Panday said the accord focuses on a “myriad of issues that are critical to the development of our countries and the region as a whole”.

“The underlying tenet of these initiatives is to propel growth in our economies and consequently to ensure the well-being of our citizens,” Panday added.

Anthony also used his official visit here to urge Trinidad and Tobago to re-establish itself as a major player in Caribbean politics as it did in the years of the oil boom, when Port of Spain was in the forefront of the regional integration process.

“Economic prosperity brings with it a certain amount of political leadership,” was the way the St Lucian Prime Minister put his request to his Trinidadian counterpart.

The Caribbean’s judicial system, the issue of the death penalty were among other issues emerging during the visit and are certain to generate far less heat on the domestic scene when Anthony returns to Castries.

The Panday administration failed last month to get the opposition to go along with constitutional changes to facilitate the quick execution of convicted murderers in light of recent rulings by the London-based Privy Council – the highest court in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

Last week Jamaica’s Prime Minister Percival Patterson urged the region to adopt a united stand on the issue and The Bahamas has already begun a series of hangings.

A former lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Anthony said he supported the death penalty and expressed his “unswerving desire” for the region to take hold of its own judicial future as seen in the establishment of a Caribbean Court of Appeal.

“Our sovereignty would never be complete if we allow a foreign court to determine our lives … I am an unrepentant believer. I do know we will make mistakes, but for me the journey for independence is a long one,” he argued.

But he acknowledged that there was need “to clean up the judicial system” making particular reference to the prison system where, for instance, in the case of the St Lucia penal institutions built to accommodate 80 persons were holding in excess of 300.

On that score, he found a willing ally in Panday whose three-year- old administration has itself been battling a severe shortage of prison space.