TTMA President: Do away with dependency syndrome

With the Free Trade Area of the Americas, (FTAA), less than twenty-four months away, Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association, (TTMA), President Anthony Hosang, has observed that the “dependency syndrome” that has characterised most Third World nations had to be done away with as the nation moves towards embracing both the oppoprtunities and obstacles presented by the trade agreement. Hosang made the observation at a lecture-dinner organized by the San Fernando Business Association, (SBA) at Soong’s Great Wall Restaurant, San Fernando on Saturday evening. He spoke on the topic: “How the FTAA will affect Business.”

The TTMA president also observed that T&T’s on-going fishing dispute with Brbados had set back Caricom development by at least 10 years. “We are all keenly aware of what our leaders learned over 40 years ago, that one from ten leaves nought. Caricom has evolved painstakingly from that failed federation,” he said. “Now, in the face of non-trade disagreements, it seems incumbent on us to find the way to transcend these difficuilities and move quickly to our own Caribbean common market,” Hosang added. He also called for an “efficient monitoring” of goods and services entering the twin-island Republic by a number of State agencies including the Bureau of Standards. “We must remember that we are becoming an open market for surplus products from other states. Competition may be a good thing for us as consumers, but we must be sure that it is not a short-term good,” he said. “And for us as producers, it must be fair in this regard, Customs and Excise, Bureau of Standards, our Food and Drug Administration, all regulatory agencies and very importantly, our legislation, has to be well resourced and enforced to protect local consumers, retailers and manufactures alike from the negative impacts of goods that destroy our ability to be competitive, “ Hosang added.

He said that the nation’s workforce also had to be “healthy, educated, skilled and constantly learning” to be able to adapt to an increasingly competitive international market. “We must promote advancement by merit and merit alone, high efficiency and productivity must be our goal, be it in the public or private sector,” he said. “We need desperately, to move our country from ‘hand outs’ to ‘hand ups’,” Hosang added. He said that, over the coming weeks, the TTMA would launch its “T&T Tried and True” campaign to “sensitise our market about the good, locally produced standbys” produced by manufacturers and producers.