Valley: No FTAA decision in Miami

TRADE MINISTER Ken Valley said no decision will be taken at this week’s Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Ministerial Meeting in Miami on the FTAA Secretariat’s location. Addressing a news conference at Riverside Plaza on Monday, Valley stated: “We do not expect now that a decision will be made at the Miami Ministerial. TT will be taking a low profile with respect to its bid at the Miami Ministerial. We would expect that sometime next year, the issue will be decided.”

Asked why this was so, Valley disclosed that one of the contenders for the FTAA Secretariat had dropped out of the race and was now backing TT’s bid. The Minister declined to reveal the identity of this contender. He said regardless of this development, TT’s FTAA lobbying process began in earnest last week with Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift addressing Central American nations in Bolivia last week on our candidacy.  “Next week, different groups of Caricom Ministers will be going to different headquarters to talk with investors in South and Central America with respect to our bid. We feel we are getting stronger,” Valley disclosed.

The Minister said Miami may not be the preferred site for the FTAA given the plethora of hemispheric organisations already based in the United States and the increased security mechanisms to enter and leave the country. Valley dismissed the suggestion that the number of air links could swing the vote in favour of Miami and reminded journalists of Government’s plans to transform Piarco Airport into a gateway between North and South America. He reiterated that BWIA had a crucial role to play in this regard and Government is always “looking to see if the airline can be saved.” Valley denied reports of British Airways interest in purchasing BWIA and said Caricom’s plans for a BWIA-Liat merger were still on. The Minister said work was ongoing to restructure both airlines separately before merging them into a single entity. He scoffed at critics of a regional carrier, recalling similar statements about creating the Point Lisas Industrial Estate.

Valley conceded that one of BWIA’s main problems was it never had enough finance or assistance to develop new markets. He said this was an unacceptable state of affairs since Government and Caricom nations derived revenue from BWIA by way of taxation and tourism respectively. “I think that BWIA’s future is quite bright,” Valley added. The Minister said Caricom felt it had a lot to gain from “a properly structured FTAA” and will retain the current scope of the agreement except in the area of intellectual property rights, Government procurement and computation policy. Valley added that the US and Brazil were still holding out on certain aspects of the FTAA and Caricom hoped to act as “honest brokers” in overcoming these obstacles.