Opening the China window

The expanding of links between China and Caricom highlighted by the recent visit of a Chinese trade and investment mission to Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica as well as its taking part in the China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Co-operation Forum in Jamaica will be of benefit to both China and the region. The importance given by China to the development of these links was clear, what with the head of the mission, China’s Vice President, Zeng Qinghong, being the highest ranking Chinese public official ever to have visited Trinidad and Tobago. 

Caricom member states, particularly in light of increasing globalisation,  which is leading to a contraction of traditional export markets at home and abroad, should look at the trade window China is offering. Several Caricom countries will be hard hit by the current United States economic salvos in the World Trade Organisation against preferential entry of raw sugar and bananas to the European Union under the Convention of Lome. Several Caricom countries, for example Trinidad and Tobago (asphalt exports) and Antigua and Barbuda, have trade and/or investment ties with China. 

In 1999, China and Antigua and Barbuda entered into an agreement which led to the expansion of the use of the country’s sea island cotton in the production of textiles for the export market. This country’s asphalt which penetrated the Chinese market in 1949 with an initial shipment of 2,380 tonnes, is poised to make relatively large inroads with China’s planned hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games and the need for it to uprade and strengthen its highways. The qualities of our asphalt when as a binder are well-known to the Chinese: The roadway, for instance, in the mile-long Cross Harbour Tunnel linking Hong Kong to mainland China and which accommodates in excess of 2.5 million vehicles a month, incorporates our asphalt.

In turn, our asphalt which has a great range of applications can be used by China in road and airport runway reconstruction, resheeting, protective paving of concrete bridge decks, anti-corrosive coating for natural gas pipelines, roofing and waterproofing of buildings, the lining of reservoirs and chemical and oil-resistant floorings. These add up to a potential for increased exports of asphalt products to China and a timely rise in foreign exchange earnings to TT, greater employment opportunities as well as more revenue for the country. It is within this framework and the general threat of expanding globalisation that China’s assistance to the economies of Caricom,  whatever the motivation, must be viewed.