PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC:
PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning decided not to sign the agreement establishing PetroCaribe because of pressure from the United States Government and fear of a possible fallout from the agreement, highly placed government sources said yesterday.
According to the sources, the U.S. Government raised the fact that a large amount of government revenue comes from sales of liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the U.S. market, and that it was unhappy with the region's support for the PetroCaribe initiative.
The sources also say that while the U.S. Government did not directly threaten Atlantic LNG's exports to the U.S., its warnings were enough for the Manning administration to back off from any agreement, at least for the time being.
Manning told this week's meeting in Puerto La Cruz that Trinidad and Tobago was in a unique position in the Caribbean, being the only exporter of hydrocarbons in the region.
SPECIAL CLAUSE
This led to the Venezuelans including a special clause in the agreement which recognises Trinidad's special role, but was not enough to swing the deal.
Manning's failure to sign the agreement led to the Venezuelan opposition's launching a scathing attack on the country's president Hugo Chavez, saying the meeting was a colossal waste of time and money.
Yesterday Gonzo Gallegos, public affairs adviser to the Western Hemisphere Bureau of the U.S. State Department, confirmed that three issues were raised with Caribbean governments before the meeting in Venezuela.
Gallegos said the U.S. Government raised its energy relationship with the Caribbean, its desire to see free-market enterprise flourish in the region, and its 'long-standing and well-publicised' concerns about the democratic process in Venezuela.
ENERGY RELATIONSHIP
When asked if Washington had raised the issue of Atlantic LNG with Port-of-Spain, Gallegos said he did not wish to be specific.
"I want to confirm that in the usual course of discussions with the governments of the Caribbean we did raise the issue of our energy relationship, and that is as far as I wish to go. It serves no purpose of going into any further details." he said from his Washington, DC office.
Trinidad and Tobago is the only Caribbean exporter of energy products to the U.S. and is responsible for 77 per cent of all the LNG imported into the U.S. market.
Gallegos was also reluctant to say if the U.S. Government was against the formation of PetroCaribe.
"We are not saying what our position is one way or the other. But we have made it clear that we are in favour of free-market enterprise," he said.
Under the PetroCaribe agreement, petroleum prices are expected to be reduced by the removal of middle traders through government-to-government arrangements.
