Senator predicts negative consequences with FTAA/CSME

Under the theme: “Defending Workers’ Rights in an Era of Hemispheric Integration”, opposition Senator Wade Mark said yesterday, “The challenges we face with the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Caricom Single Market Economy (CSME) will have negative consequences for us in the very near future.” He predicted huge job losses, increasing poverty and massive reductions in the labour force, while making the opening remarks at the Banking, Insurance and General Workers Union’s (BIGWU) “Workers Education Programme 2003”, which was held at the Algico Plaza Conference Facilities.

Mark also spoke of a recent survey done where 70 to 80 percent of business people in the country didn’t as yet know about FTAA. He said it is the duty of the BIGWU to sensitise workers to the challenges we all are faced with and further educate and train workers to be more in sync with what is required in an era of hemispheric integration. But Catherine Kumar, Chief Operations Officer of ALGICO,  disagreed with such a gloomy prospect after welcoming participants to her company’s conference facility. However, Mark’s view was shared by Kelvin Sargeant, chief economist, RBTT.

Sargeant said the FTAA will have its benefits and its challenges but said the days of job security are gone. He then warned that countries signed to the FTAA, which comes into effect January 1, 2005, better get prepared for survival. As part of the FTAA, we are supposed to have a free market for goods and services but as the FTAA seeks to eliminate tariffs and non-tariffs to level the playing field, Sargeant too had his predictions. He stated that there will be mergers and acquisitions within the financial and business sectors, as well as there will be take-overs, some of which may be hostile. As a result of all this, a lot of right-sizing of companies will result in a number of VSEP packages being offered. With 34 countries from Alaska to Patagonia in South America, including Trinidad and Tobago being part the FTAA, Sargeant said we should be concerned with hemispheric integration in the Caribbean and that the faster we get the CSME right, the less chances of our suffering.