EDITORIAL - Trinidad's new and interesting tune

A significant statement by Trinidad and Tobago's finance minister, Mr Winston Dookeran, about the current administration's seemingly shifting attitude to Caribbean economic integration, has received surprisingly little public notice, but is one to which this newspaper believes Jamaica should pay close attention, including thinking about ways Kingston might extract value from any emerging initiatives.

Whether there was sound basis for it or not, there is no doubting the fact that there is a perception in the region that the United National Congress (UNC)-led coalition government in Port-of-Spain had, since it came to office more than a year ago, turned the country cool towards the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), in contrast to the robust integrationist posture of the predecessor administration of Mr Patrick Manning.

There was, for instance, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's crude remark to the effect that the region could no longer consider her country an ATM, in reference to the aid that the Manning government, then flush with earnings from oil and gas, had provided to Trinidad and Tobago's neighbours in the Eastern Caribbean. Several bilateral development projects by the Manning government were also mothballed.

Dookeran's hopeful hint

But last week, Mr Dookeran said that Port-of-Spain would "review the architecture of the Caribbean integration process and seek to build new projects integrating the natural mineral resources of the region".

Said he: "The government (of Trinidad and Tobago) will initiate discussions with Caribbean countries to identify a new integration framework to facilitate the process, and to include the larger countries of the hemisphere."

Of course, further and better particulars are required from Port-of-Spain before there can be any conclusion of whether the Trinidadians are serious and what may be in it for Jamaica and our other partners in CARICOM. But taking Mr Dookeran's comments at face value, there may well be opportunities for Jamaica.

Trade imbalance

The minerals that Trinidad and Tobago has are primarily oil and natural gas, which it has used to underpin its industrial base, making it the key manufacturer in CARICOM. Indeed, Trinidad and Tobago's export of energy and other manufactured products to Jamaica has meant that in recent years, Kingston has run a trade deficit of nearly US$1 billion annually with Port-of-Spain. For the first five months of this year, Jamaica's trade deficit with CARICOM on a whole was US$452 million, nearly all of which was accounted for by Trinidad and Tobago.

That, clearly, is not sustainable. In any event, a poor Jamaica is not good for Trinidad and Tobago - facts now being appreciated by the Trinidadian trade minister, Stephen Cadiz, who is mounting a buying mission to Kingston.

But of greater importance is how Port-of-Spain uses its energy - the high cost of which is a major downside to this Jamaica's economy - to support development here. Indeed, Port-of-Spain's reneging on a deal to supply Jamaica with liquefied natural gas helped to scuttle a major expansion of the Jamalco alumina refinery. But perhaps there is an opportunity, if Mr Dookeran's words carry any value, to revive such a scheme.

A year ago, Mrs Persad-Bissessar pulled the plug on a 125,000-tonne aluminium smelter project that was being developed with a Brazilian partner and Chinese money. That project, too, could, in some form, be resurrected, which would be good for Jamaica. Our Government, perhaps, should begin the engagement.