Rising crime not hurting TT’s FTAA chances

RISING CRIME will not hurt Trinidad and Tobago’s chances to become the permanent site of the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) Secretariat. This was revealed by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Edwina Leacock, at a news conference at the Hilton Trinidad on Friday night. Leacock said one of the security criteria for location of the FTAA Secretariat “ is the number of crime or killings per 100,000 inhabitants.” However Leacock said the criteria for the Secretariat’s location was still undecided. “We ourselves have been asking exactly how you will use this thing of various criteria because it has not yet been clarified. They have passed it to the TNC (Trade Negotiating Committee) in Miami. It’s just a guide for the different member states to evaluate one city against the other one. There has been no definitive statement that says if your statistics are higher than mine, it will work against you,” she said.

Meanwhile, Caricom trade representatives and Deputy US trade representative Peter Allgeier hinted that TT will have a tough fight on its hands at the eighth FTAA Ministerial Meeting in Miami on November 20-21, if it wants to become the base for the FTAA Secretariat. Allgeier said the US wanted consensus among the 34 FTAA nations for the site of the Secretariat and countries have until November 20 to submit candidate cities and one country can submit the names of several cities. Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) Director-General Richard Bernal said FTAA nations will have to vote once there is no consensus. TT has the support of 14 Caricom nations, Venezuela and Costa Rica and needs the support of two more FTAA nations to become the location of the Secretariat. Allegier and Brazilian Ambassador Adhemar Bahadian admitted that “blockages” had emerged amongst the 34 nations regarding the type of FTAA which each country wanted but declined to say what the “blockages” were. Allgeier said that as co-chairs of the TNC, the US and Brazil had to “maintain neutrality” on this matter. He also spoke about the importance of a round-table meeting of the 34 FTAA nations at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC on November 14-15. Bernal said that depending on the outcome of the Washington meeting, it was possible that some Caricom countries may not join the FTAA immediately when it comes on stream in January 2005.