00:00Speaking on TV6's Morning Edition, Chairman of the Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Curtis Williams, is urging small and medium businesses in Tobago to explore alternative trade opportunities beyond the United States.
00:14This comes in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's directive to raise tariffs on countries without updated trade agreements with the U.S.
00:23Just recently, we had the visit of the Indian Prime Minister and his utterances give us hope that India is open for business and we can explore that market.
00:33We can look at India. And not recently, just last week, we had the African folks were there and they spoke about the exit bank, the African exit bank and how much funding that they're looking to give towards the Caribbean.
00:47William says international markets such as India and Africa have shown a willingness to do business with Trinidad and Tobago.
00:56Based on the feedback we got from the African market, it seems like they're ready. They're ready like yesterday.
01:03Even from the Indian market, it's up to us now to continue meeting with their commercial people within their different embassies and high commission.
01:12Meanwhile, Williams also addressed the recent disruptions to the inter-island cargo services.
01:19On July 12th, the MV Carbostar was taken out of service for scheduled dry docking and maintenance in Curaçao.
01:26He acknowledged that the three-week absence of the vessel created challenges for some businesses, particularly in the construction sector.
01:34It meant that things would be back to normal. Some of our warehouses are a bit down in stock.
01:41As you know, the Carbostar wasn't dried up for a period of three weeks and they were using some supplemental vessels, the TT Spirit and the Gallium Passage and the other Tog.
01:53And these vessels, yes, they did try to cope with the demand for moving cargo between the two islands.
02:01There was some shortfall, some drop-off, I should say.
02:04A bit of inconvenience for some of the folks in the hardware industry and the construction.
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