TT 2 votes shy of FTAA site

WITH only two votes required for Trinidad and Tobago to become the headquarters of the Free Trade Areas of the Americas (FTAA) Secretariat,  next week will “make or break” this country’s FTAA aspirations.

This was the disclosure yesterday by Trade and Industry Minister Ken Valley at a news conference at Riverside Plaza to announce the staging of the 15th meeting of the Trade Negot-iations Committee (TNC) of the FTAA from September 30 to October 3 at the Hilton Trinidad. “Next week is extremely important for us. TT continues to be the frontrunner. This is going to be a make or break conference for us,” he declared. Valley said TT currently has 14 votes from Caricom plus two additional votes from Venezuela and Costa Rica supporting its bid for the FTAA Secretariat.

Trade Ministry officials explained that TT needs the support of 18 of the 34 FTAA nations to become the base for the Secretariat. The Minister recalled that the initiative to establish the FTAA Secretariat in TT was first started under the former UNC Government and said it “is a TT challenge.” Valley first launched TT’s bid for the FTAA Secretariat at the last meeting of the FTAA Ministers in Ecuador in October 2002.  TT’s main competitors are Miami (USA), Cancun (Mexico) and Panama City (Panama). Asked if former UNC ministers were assisting Government’s FTAA negotiations, Valley said the talks were being handled by public servants.

Noting concerns raised by trade unions and other NGOs about the FTAA, the Minister said this was the reason behind a special consultation at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Monday at 10 am, 24 hours ahead of the TNC conference. He revealed that the annual cost of running the FTAA Secretariat (if TT is successful) will be US$3.5 million and this will be divided up among all 34 FTAA member nations. Valley said the presence of FTAA Secretariat in TT has numerous benefits for the country in terms of job creation and foreign exchange inflows. He hinted that after the FTAA and the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) establishment “the  next logical step is political union because that is what is going to happen. It’s a natural progression,” Valley stated.

The Minister spoke about plans to modernise the Port-of-Spain waterfront to accommodate the FTAA Secretariat and for the city to become bi-lingual by January 2005. Valley disclosed that $1 million has been allocated in the 2003/2004 Budget to achieve the latter objective and the initiative could involve student exchanges between UWI and Latin American universities.