LaRocque’s take on imbalance

CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque (left), conferring with Prime Minister Freundel Stuart. (Nigel Browne)

By DAWNE PARRIS in St Lucia | Wed, July 04, 2012 - 12:09 AM

THE TRADE IMBALANCES between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados and other countries within CARICOM have a lot to do with who has more to export.

That was the suggestion of CARICOM Secretary General Irwin LaRocque yesterday against the background of complaints from some member states that the oil-rich country benefitted most from trade within the 15-member grouping.

He said that while he did not want to trivialize the concerns, the reality was that some countries had more resources to sell than others.

“Trade imbalances are created by and large by persons who trade and what you have to trade. To the extent that there are . . . any technical barriers to trade then one would step in to see how one would address that, but Trinidad and Tobago is endowed with a natural resource that is in great demand in the region,” LaRocque said as he took a break from the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) at the Bay Gardens Hotel in Gros Islet, St Lucia.

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Posted by RICHARD power 10 months, 3 weeks ago: I really don't understand why people don't get what is going on.
Its very simple! The man that has the gold makes the rules! It doesn't matter which party is in or out it will always be like that.
The time to have dealt with this problem has long passed and its to late now! T &T has too much of a foothold here in Barbados!
What I would do is threaten to let in all of the competition!