Opinion
- Editorial - Commentary
Andy
Johnson:
Wrestling the Eagle
THE
recently appointed Jamaican Foreign Minister Anthony
Hylton jumped ahead of his colleagues in siding
with Prime Minister Patrick Manning on his comments
about the supposed less than due treatment offered
this country by the United States.
As
gratitude for the fact that Trinidad and Tobago
has been a major supplier of natural gas and other
energy products to the US, a stable and reliable
one at that, Mr Manning told an audience in Port
of Spain last week that the US was being asked to
offer preferential access to goods made, manufactured
or packaged in Trinidad and Tobago.
It
was the second round in a new and somewhat puzzling
demeanour being adopted by the Prime Minister in
as many months, of crying out loud, on matters involving
the relations between this country in particular
and Caricom in general, with the US in particular,
and other developed countries in general.
When
he addressed the opening ceremony of the last Caricom
heads of Government conference in St Kitts two months
ago, the Prime Minister appeared slightly out of
character, in referring to "promises made"
to Caricom countries but which were later "nonchalantly
broken". He was speaking about promised assistance
from third countries in the sought after arrangements
for the staging of next year's Cricket World Cup
series to be held in the Caribbean.
Three
days later, however, Mr Manning was to report favourably
on the progress made in this very matter, with the
arrangements he said would now form the basis for
a region-wide security and intelligence system,
ostensibly for the cricket, but elements of which
would remain in place in perpetuity.
Mr
Manning had spoken in that address in Basseterre
also of Trinidad and Tobago's preference for Caricom
member states to begin working towards the establishment
of a single foreign policy platform, at the same
time they were closing in on the idea of a single
economic space. This, he said, was not going to
be enough to face the world in the times which are
up ahead.
It
was in fact one of the priority items for discussion,
with which his delegation had gone to the summit.
The conference communique reported however, that
Jamaica, had responded in the negative, saying it
was not prepared to go along with that "at
this time."
Mr Hylton was attending his first summit as his
country's foreign minister, having been bumped up
from being Jamaica's energy diplomat. This was an
assignment which saw him often, loudly, at his wits'
end in trying to understand what to him seemed like
shabby treatment from Port of Spain, as he sought
to get a respectable deal on energy supplies from
Trinidad and Tobago.
Both
countries had been at loggerheads, Jamaica wanting
to be regarded as, well, a customer in Trinidad
and Tobago's domestic economic space, given the
intentions of the CSME, and Trinidad and Tobago
saying, not so fast, not yet. Reports from the agreement
reached with Mr Hylton and his team on the occasion
of the visit here in April by then newly appointed
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, suggest a
rapprochement, however, on the energy question between
Kingston and Port of Spain.
But
it wasn't carrot enough for Jamaica to have gone
along on this quest from Port of Spain for foreign
policy single-mindedness in Caricom.
This
apart, Mr Manning's fulminations against Washington
have also been taken by insiders both here and abroad
as hard headed. He was advised to drop the idea
of trying to use energy to seek preference on trade.
It is a two-year odyssey that was destined to go
nowhere from the start, one policy adviser concluded
in its wake last week.
What's worse, I'm told, it came at the back end
of an unscheduled but "disastrous" meeting
the Prime Minister held with the US Vice President
in late June, just days before the St Kitts summit.
From that meeting, we were told the discussion was
about the need for more information from the US
about criminal deportees being sent back to the
region. Nothing about negotiations, or discussions
even, concerning energy stability, trade and preferential
treatment.
That
the meeting was held in the first place should have
been seen as an illustration of the high regard
in which Washington holds Port of Spain, the insiders
say. Nothing of substance appeared to have been
on the agenda.
It
was said to have been an effort by lobbyists in
Washington, paid by the Government of Trinidad and
Tobago, to secure access to the power centres there.
Those who know say it was not worth the price of
the ticket. There happens to be at least two competitors
for the paid privilege of representing this country
in Washington, and this is now the subject of intense
lobbying all on its own.
But
how much more powerful may have been the impact
of the Jamaican foreign minister's support for the
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister in wrestling
the eagle, had the communique from Basseterre read
differently, on the single foreign policy question.
Trinidad
Express
Thursday, September 14th 2006
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© 2006 The
Trinidad Express.
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