00:00With less than one week to go before he demits office, Prime Minister Dr. Keith
00:05Rowley is taking a stand in support of Trinidad and Tobago's sovereignty.
00:12Out of the blue now we are being called human traffickers because we hire technical
00:19people who we pay top dollar equal to local rates but we are now being
00:26accused of taking part in the program where people are being exploited.
00:32That's somebody's interpretation and of course there are local people here
00:39encouraging them to take away our US visas. Today I just came back
00:45from California and if I never been in my life I will ensure that the
00:53sovereignty of Trinidad and Tobago is known to its people and respected by all.
00:59Dr. Rowley's comments come on the heels of the Trump administration's
01:07announcement of visa sanctions against the government who patronized Cuba's
01:12medical labor export program. On Sunday CARICOM's Council for Foreign and
01:17Community Relations met with the US State Department Special Envoy to
01:22discuss this and other issues. Contacted for comment today Minister of
01:27Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Dr. Amy Brown told TV6 News the meeting went
01:33extremely well. Dr. Brown described the discussions as
01:38wide-ranging with specific focus on the current US policies on Cuba as well as
01:43the issues of migration, regional security, energy security and Haiti.
01:49He says more substantive exchanges are anticipated in the near future with the
01:54Special Envoy, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other key members of the
01:59current US administration. Meantime Dr. Rowley is also condemning members of the
02:04opposition for their negative comments on this country's drug and gas deal with
02:08Venezuela. Noting that should the deal fall through it would be a major loss
02:13for TNT. Sanctions by one country against another country could have the
02:20effect of destroying our economy. We're not involved in it but it could destroy
02:28everything that we represent and that we hope for and it takes a lot of good
02:34leadership to navigate between these grinding gears to come away in an era of
02:41sanctions by the United States against Venezuela with an OFAC license from the
02:46Office of Foreign Asset Control where Trinidad and Tobago has in fact the
02:51license to operate without the sanctions and we simply have to have a commitment
02:58and to earn the respect of those we do business with to ensure that we move
03:04from talk to working the outcome because the future of our country depends on it.
03:12The outgoing Prime Minister was speaking at the opening of the new central block
03:16of the Port of Spain General Hospital. Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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