Prof
Bryan: T&T must boost Washington lobby
By Curtis Williams
The Trinidad Guardian
Port
Spain
Petroleumworld.com
09 17 06
T&T
must do a better job of lobbying for its interests
in Washington, because staying in Port-of-Spain
complaining about neglect from the United States
will not work.
This
is the view of Trinidadian Prof Anthony Bryan, a
senior associate at the Washington- based Centre
for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Bryan,
who is also professor emeritus at the University
of Miami, said Prime Minister Patrick Manning was
right to complain about the lack of interest being
shown by the US in the region on matters of trade
and drug trafficking.
He
said the Prime Minister’s rebuke showed there
was some frustration over the US approach to the
region, and the statement was made at an event that
was likely to lead to significant local coverage.
Bryan
said, however, the Prime Minister’s statement
got little coverage in the United States, because
many leaders throughout the Western Hemisphere had
complained about the void the US had left, which
led to the emergence of several left-wing politicians,
led by Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez.
Speaking
last Tuesday at the BGTT luncheon series, Manning
waded into the United States, saying: “We
seek to leverage our energy resources in the cause
of national development. It would have been nice
if I could have said today this is recognised by
the USA.
“We
don’t know if it is recognised at all. In
fact, we believe Washington has been studiously
ignoring the Caribbean and ignoring the requirements
of T&T.”
Manning’s
view was supported by Jamaica’s Minister of
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Anthony Hylton,
who said his country was not interested in window
dressing.
Prof
Bryan said T&T had to recognise that it needed
to have a strong lobby in the US capital, and that
it had to pursue its own interest, since it could
not successfully pursue a Caricom agenda.
Bryan,
whose work at the CSIS centres on energy co-operation
and energy diplomacy in the Caribbean, said this
country needed to focus on trade and military lobbying,
so that it could get resources from the US.
The
Government awarded an annual contract of $7.5 million
(US$1.2 million), last year, to a Washington-based
firm to lobby the Bush administration on the country’s
behalf.
The
tender, officially awarded by the Central Tenders
Board, was won by Ainsley Gill and Associates, after
the firm beat out one other lobbying group.
In
an interview last year with the Business Guardian,
Gill said: “If T&T wants something done
in Washington, DC, and we cannot do it, then nobody
can.”
Prof
Bryan said the United States had been stretched
in its war on terror, and it was in part understandable
that the US had neither the time nor the resources
to advance to the Caribbean.
He
argued, however, that there was no nexus between
T&T supplying 75 per cent of the LNG imports
into the US and Manning’s calls for more resources
to be deployed in the fight against drug traffickers.
Bryan
said Manning would have a difficult challenge in
pushing his agenda for most-favoured nation status
with the US, as 2006 was an election year there
and there was a strong anti-free trade lobby in
Washington.
He
suggested that what was needed was better lobbying
efforts in the US capital with a focused T&T
agenda.
The
Trinidad Guardian
Thursday 14th September 2006
Copyright
©2006 The Trinidad Guardian. All Rights Reserved.
