PM: Forex $$ will be available

Responding to a question from Pointe-a-Pierre MP David Lee on this issue in the House of Representatives, the Prime Minister said, “We will still expect that the arrangements in place will permit small medium and large businesses to survive within the context of our circumstances.” Rowley said regardless of the size of the users of foreign exchange, “this conversation has to be rooted in the fact that there has to be an understanding that foreign exchange in TT is not at the level that it used to be.” The Prime Minister said people would be burying their heads in the sand if they did not accept that foreign exchange is being, “bought and sold outside of the banks in TT.” He attributed this to a tinkering in April 2014 under the then People’s Partnership (PP) government, “with the distribution of foreign exchange that first took us down the road to the creation of a black market in this country.” Regarding Lee’s question which spoke about a huge demand for foreign exchange by businesses during Christmas and claimed there was a prolonged shortage of it, Rowley found such as statement to be strange in the second week of December. He said the bulk of the foreign exchange required for the Christmas trade, “would have been occurring before and spent as far back as October.” Asked by Tabaquite MP Dr Suruj Rambachan about businesses putting up signs saying they are buying foreign exchange, Rowley said as far as he was aware foreign exchange is supposed to be handled within certain regulatory arrangements. The Prime Minister said any breaches of the law in this regard would be dealt with by the relevant agencies.