BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DESPITE media reports that the new government of Trinidad and Tobago will not go ahead with the proposed economic union with countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the sub-grouping is prepared to move on without that nation.
Days after the historic June 18 signing of the revised Treaty of Basseterre, establishing a single market for the OECS, news broke that Trinidad and Tobago’s new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar would not allow her government to join the new regional framework as was expected for 2013.
According to the BBC, Persad-Bissessar said her predecessor Patrick Manning made a “unilateral decision” regarding joining the union and did not take it to Parliament or seek national consensus on the matter.
In response, Chairman of the Joint Committee of the OECS Authority and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Monetary Council Hon. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said the decision for Trinidad and Tobago to join the Union should rightfully be determined by the public policy of the current Trinidadian government.
He added, however, that the OECS will continue its work toward closer integration with or without Trinidad and Tobago as part of the Union.
“Now, if it is the public policy of the new government of Trinidad and Tobago not to have a deepened link with the OECS but to be with us as part of CARICOM, that’s fine. That would be her policy decision. But...we have taken certain important decisions and we are going on with our work. Simple and straightforward,” Gonsalves said to a gathering of journalists last Friday at the ECCB Headquarters.
Though it was mentioned in Persad Bissesar’s People’s Partnership coalition manifesto that the new government would reverse the move to join the economic union, Gonsalves said up until last Friday (Jun. 25) that he has not seen any official communication from the government of Trinidad and Tobago regarding its new position.
The PM said it was agreed with former Prime Minister Manning that discussion on closer integration with the region would take priority after the OECS union is fully operational in January 2011.
“Prime Minister Manning, as he was at the time, came to the conclusion that within CARICOM, the political or governance requisites for the single economy...were unlikely to take place in the foreseeable future. He thought that he would explore the possibility of having a deeper nexus with the OECS,” Gonsalves explained.
Attempts to reach the Press Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Garvin Nicholas, were unsuccessful up until print time. SKNVibes has not yet been able to confirm the stance taken by the new government.
