PNM questions UNC commitment

In a statement yesterday, PNM General Secretary Ashton Ford said the latest example of this was the Opposition’s failure to support the Tax Information Exchange Agreement Bill 2016 which is designed to ensure TT is compliant with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act of the US.

Ford said the Opposition’s failure to support passage of the Bill “has demonstrated once again the glaring inconsistencies in their flippant stance on matters of major national importance.” He said this could have dire consequences for financial institutions and businesses engaged in international trade. He added that the UNC’s actions “seems to point again towards an inconsistency in positions” from being in government to being in opposition.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi has indicated there is documentary evidence to show the former People’s Partnership government, in which the UNC was the major party, supported all of the measures now being advanced by the PNM. Ford said the actions of the UNC are not different from its changing positions, from government to opposition, in making the Caribbean Court of Justice this country’s final appellate court.

In contrast, Ford said the PNM supported “more pieces of legislation than possibly any other Opposition in this country’s history” during the five years of the PP. Ford said the UNC’s inconsistent behaviour suggests that rather than being pro-TT, it prefers “to be anti-PNM.”