PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Prime Minister Stuart Young says he expects the decision by the United States to impose sweeping tariffs internationally, including on countries in the Caribbean, to be discussed when regional leaders meet virtually on April 11.
Prime Minister Stuart Young speaking at Thursday’s news conference (CMC Photo)“We have a CARICOM heads meeting on the 11th of April, a virtual meeting and I am certain, if we don’t have a meeting before that schedule meeting, this whole topic of conversation will come up and of course CARICOM, speaking as a bloc, a united bloc has a much stronger voice.
“We will remain engage, we are currently gathering information, assessing how it will affect Trinidad and Tobago exports to the United States. We have a Caribbean Basin Initiative…and that’s one of the things we will raise with the United States today.
“So like many countries across the world, we are now gathering the information…and as soon as that is done, with a level of transparency and accountability we will come and talk to the population about how we believe it is going to affect us and what are some of the measures that we may be able to take.”
Young, speaking at the weekly Cabinet news conference, told reporters that his Trade Minister, Paula Goopee Scoon, would be holding talks on Thursday with United States officials here on the issue.
“I have been in constant contact with the Minister of Trade, the Minister of CARICOM and Foreign Affairs (Dr. Amery Browne) and in fact this morning I asked the Minister of Trade to meet with the United States government personnel in Trinidad at the US Embassy to gather more information,” Young said.
Trump on Wednesday announced far-reaching new tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners ranging from a 34 percent tax on imports from China and 20 per cent on the European Union, among others, in a move economists and other traders say is designed to dismantle much of the architecture of the global economy and trigger broader trade wars.
In the case of the Caribbean Trump announced a 10 per cent tariff on most regional countries, while in the case of Guyana, the tariff is as high as 38 per cent.
Trump said that the tariffs were designed to boost domestic manufacturing, used aggressive rhetoric to describe a global trade system that the United States helped to build after World War II, saying “our country has been looted, pillaged, raped and plundered” by other nations.
“We are all now in the process of studying exactly what this is…what I can tell the population is that from an initial information perspective, it does not appear to be a blanket tariff of 10 per cent on all goods exported from Trinidad and Tobago to the United States,” Young said.
“There are, it appears certain exceptions, so we are currently studying that,” Young said, adding that “from a logical point of view , the wide ranging imposition meaning many many countries, some with higher rates than others, it does not appear initially on the face of it, that it makes things less competitive …
“If everybody is starting off from a base line…it is premature for me to say anything at this stage until the specifics of Trinidad and Tobago…and of course there is an opportunity for conversation with the United States.”
Young reiterated that while it would be “too early” to indicate the impact of the tariff on Trinidad and Tobago, the United States is not the only market importing this country’s methanol, ammonia, liquified natural gas and other energy products.
“I am being told in a preliminary manner some of those products…may not be affected by the tariff and I think it is premature for me to make any declaration at this stage. We are studying it …we have our experts on it …so we can come to the population and say this is how we expect to deal with it…”
Economists say that the action by the United States amounts to a historic tax hike that could push the global order to a breaking point.
Trump said he was acting to bring in hundreds of billions in new revenue to the U.S. government and restore fairness to global trade.
“Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” he said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”
