A
tough-talking Prime Minister Patrick Manning yesterday
knocked the United States, accusing it of ignoring
the Caribbean.
Manning
was speaking at the launch of the BGTT Energy Luncheon
series to an audience that included US Ambassador
to T&T Dr Roy Austin.
He
said that while the USA had turned its attention
to terrorism, the war against the drug trade had
fallen by the wayside.
“Initially,
the USA was concerned about drugs,” Manning
said.
“But,
of course, that has inevitably since 9/11 given
away to terrorism, preoccupied now, and quite rightly
so, with terrorist activity around the world and
how it affects US interests. We find that concern
about drugs has gone to the backburner
“While
that happens, the drug cartels in South America
are no less active today than they were two and
three and five years ago, and we are seeing the
heightened use of Caribbean countries as transshipment
centres,” he said.
Manning
said T&T had offered to patrol the Eastern Caribbean
but would not be able to finance such a move on
its own.
“That
offer remains on the table,” he said.
The
PM said that while he had made his concerns known
to Washington, there had been no response.
“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 in
the USA,” he said.
“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.”
The
USA, he said, has also been silent on allowing regional
goods to enter that country duty free.
The
current deal, the Caribbean Basin Initiative, had
expired, and the USA and Caricom are supposed to
work on a new free trade deal.
He
added that it was time for T&T to look to other
markets for its exports of Liquified Natural Gas
(LNG). T&T exports almost all of its LNG to
the USA, accounting for about 75 per cent of that
country’s LNG imports.
“We
are going to have to decide whether we wish to place
all our eggs in one basket. Too much of our LNG
goes to one destination and, incidentally, at prices
that are not by any means the best prices that are
available in the market,” Manning said.
Austin:
Not true!
US
AMBASSADOR to T&T Dr Roy Austin told reporters
afterwards that Prime Minister Patrick Manning had
made his concerns clear before—concerns that
the US Embassy had passed on to Washington.
He
added that he would be sending a copy of Manning’s
speech to Washington.
“A
little reminder won’t hurt,” he said.
Austin,
however, denied the USA was ignoring the region.
“I
don’t think it’s true that we’re
not paying any attention,” Austin said.
“Maybe,
he would like more than we are paying but, you know,
one has to establish priorities, and while we consider
Trinidad to be a very important ally, there are
very important things happening around the world
that are probably taking some time and taking away
attention from other issues.”
Trinidad Guardian
Wednesday,
September 6th 2006
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