FTAA to benefit TT service sector

WHILE the impending Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) trade agreement will not have any significant impact on Trinidad and Tobago’s energy sector, major benefits are expected to be in the offing for this country’s service sector. Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Industry and Commerce international trade negotiation unit (ITNU) executive director, Lawrence Placide, also reiterated the benefits that TT expects to gain, if it is selected to host the FTAA headquarters. Speaking to reporters after the South Trinidad Chamber’s energy luncheon at Canton Palace, Cross Crossing, San Fernando on Wednesday, Placide cited Miami’s “all-out lobbying” for the headquarters site saying the North American city had already estimated that some 85,000 jobs would be added to the state’s economy.

However, while he declined to say how many jobs may be created in TT, he said opportunities would be created within the service, entertainment, food and beverage, hotels and other sectors. Placide said the “prestige” of hosting the FTAA’s headquarters was also an important reason why some nine cities had entered the race. He identified cities such as Panama, Atlantic City and Mexico City as having joined the race for the FTAA headquarters. He said that the eventual winner would be chosen at a Minister’s meeting in July 2004. And as to the energy sector, Placide said “Our history and capabilities should provide us with a readily available springboard to deepening our ability to export services related to the production of energy. “We must expand our capabilities even further with a concentration on skills development at the professional levels, yes, but also at the technical level,” he said.

Placide added, “One option available is to build on the natural cluster of firms working in the energy sector, organising and facilitating discussion among competitors within this cluster to lead to more cooperative activities even as the environment becomes more competitive.” However, he observed that TT’s energy sector was one of the more open sectors in the nation’s economy saying that the question in terms of negotiations was “whether TT should be willing to bind that openness, agree not to become less closed. “Whatever the energy services industry does, it must be supported in addition by systems of innovation,” Placide said, adding “intellectual property” as an exportable energy services option.  “This can include, of relevance to the energy sector, valuation of engineering process drawings, extraction processes and other techniques,” he said.