One of this country's leading business chambers is calling on the Government along with its CARICOM counterparts, to urgently engage the U.S. to seek clarity and advocate for a review of the decision by the Trump administration to implement a 15 per cent reciprocal tariff on this region.
00:00The Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the TT Chamber, is expressing deep concern over the executive order issued by the White House on July 31st of this year, which outlines an increase in the reciprocal tariff from 10% to 15% on a range of imports, including goods from Trinidad and Tobago.
00:19The Chamber pointed out on Monday, August 4th, that these new measures are scheduled to take effect this week on August 7th.
00:29President Donald Trump first spoke on the matter on July 16th while he stood alongside the U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutrich.
00:37These are countries that are, many of them, you know, like 200 countries, you understand.
00:44Caribbean countries, African countries, you have a huge amount of countries that are small, and the president's just going to deal with them sort of the way he thinks is the right way to deal with them.
00:54We'll probably set one tariff for all of them.
00:571%, over 10% tariff on that?
00:59Probably a little over 10%, yeah.
01:0115, 20.
01:02We don't do a lot of business, but we do, you know, it's still significant.
01:05On the White House's website, under the section called Executive Actions, President Trump announced amendments to his administration's reciprocal tariffs that identified Trinidad and Tobago among U.S. trading partners that include Venezuela, New Zealand, Norway, Nigeria, Turkey, and Uganda, which now have to deal with a 15% reciprocal tariff.
01:27The TT Chamber is urging the government of Trinidad and Tobago, along with CARICOM counterparts, to urgently engage U.S. counterparts to seek clarity and advocate for a review of the decision.
01:41The Chamber added that this moment highlights the need to revisit and modernize the Caribbean Basin Initiative, ensuring that it remains fit for purpose in a changing geopolitical and trade environment.
01:54The TT Chamber said that this latest action represents a significant departure from the longstanding principles of the Caribbean Basin Initiative, the CBI, which is a U.S. policy framework designed to promote economic development and export-led growth in the Caribbean through preferential market access.
02:12The TT Chamber further said that Trinidad and Tobago, as a key beneficiary under the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, SEBERA, has long relied on stable preferential trade with the United States to bolster its manufacturing and export capacity.
02:29The website of the U.S. Trade Representative states that the trade programs known collectively as the Caribbean Basin Initiative remain important elements of U.S. economic relations with its neighbors in the Caribbean.
02:44The U.S. Trade Representative's Office website also states that the CBI is intended to facilitate the development of stable Caribbean Basin economies by providing beneficiary countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for most goods.
03:02The U.S. Trade Representative's Office noted that the CBI was launched in 1983 through the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act and was expanded in the year 2000 by the U.S. Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act and again in the Trade Act of 2002.
03:22CBI was implemented on July 1st, 1984 and has no set expiration date, while the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act is scheduled to expire on September 30, 2030.
03:36Both the former PNM administration and a new UNC-led government have said that energy exports to the U.S., such as those produced in Trinidad and Tobago, including methanol, ammonia and liquefied natural gas, would not be impacted by the new U.S. tariffs.
Be the first to comment