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  • 2 months ago
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves didn't hold back, slamming Trinidad and Tobago over foreign policy, currency woes, and control of regional airspace—issues he says are blocking CARICOM integration. He was speaking today at a UWI seminar on CSME.

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00:00There are still major hurdles to the free movement of people and goods under the CARICOM single market and economy.
00:08St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves singled out Trinidad and Tobago
00:14for what he sees as its reluctance to align with CARICOM on regional foreign policy.
00:20A stance, he says, that creates barriers across the region.
00:24How are you going to coordinate foreign policy in a proper way when we can't agree on a simple matter as to what constitutes a zone of peace?
00:35Trinidad and Tobago now has a view of the zone of peace, the CARICOM and Latin American areas as a zone of peace,
00:43where, in my view, it's a misguided notion.
00:50P.M. Gonsalves was referring to a recent CARICOM heads of government meeting held over the weekend
00:56where member states agreed to declare the Caribbean and Latin America a zone of peace.
01:02Trinidad and Tobago, however, reserved its position on the matter.
01:07When you talk about an area being a zone of peace, you're talking about a matter involving state actors
01:15that one state actor should not intervene or create threats of intervention or interference in another state.
01:27We're not talking about non-state actors in the definition of a zone of peace relating to drug trafficking
01:35and trafficking in arms and the like, trafficking in persons.
01:39Meanwhile, the United States has carried out seven strikes in the Caribbean Sea
01:44against suspected drug traffickers operating from Venezuela.
01:49The Passat-Bissess administration in TNT supports the U.S. war on narcotics.
01:55What may happen there would affect us in a very serious way
02:00if you have any move towards regime change in Venezuela instigated by an external force.
02:08You're going to have a lot of refugees and you're not only going to have good people move in
02:16because any time you have conflict and war, a lot of bad people move
02:21because bad people see opportunities to make money.
02:24PM Gonsalves warns that such developments could impact multiple CARICOM territories.
02:30They're going to go to Trinidad in their droves.
02:32They're going to go to Grenada.
02:33They're going to come to St. Vincent and Grenadines.
02:35And what we think now is a difficulty, it's going to become a crisis.
02:45He also addressed economic challenges, highlighting issues with non-standardized currencies
02:50for cross-border payments.
02:53St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for instance, imports roughly 80 million U.S. dollars
02:58in goods from Trinidad and Tobago annually.
03:00We pay them in U.S. dollars for petroleum products, manufacturing services of one kind or another.
03:11We sell agricultural produce to Trinidad and Tobago.
03:14Historically, we used to sell at the high point maybe 15, 20 million U.S.
03:22It has come down now to less than 4 million U.S.
03:28Because we are not getting paid in U.S. dollars.
03:33They want to pay our traders in agricultural produce in TT dollars.
03:38Having TT dollars on his island, he says, is largely useless.
03:42I've never been able to understand that in Trinidad and Tobago, you could allow, you can get foreign
03:49exchange to buy camembert cheese.
03:53You can get it to buy luxury items.
03:57You can even pay cartel, reportedly, 900,000 U.S. dollars to come to Trinidad to perform as a deposit.
04:05But you can't buy, you can't pay me in U.S. dollars for my yams, dashing, tanias, sweet potatoes.
04:11It's absolutely ridiculous.
04:14He also criticized Trinidad and Tobago's control over the Piaulco regional flight information,
04:20which covers airspace from Port of Spain up to St. Kitts,
04:23saying TNT profits from airspace owned by other islands.
04:28Arushi Tawari, Ruknarain, TV6 News.
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