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<P align=left>BY SANDRA CHOUTHI
Doreen Frankson, president of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association, has threatened to lobby the Jamaica government to ensure that products from T&T do not enter that market as freely as they have been.
So said Paul Quesnel, president of the T&T Manufacturers Association (TTMA), stating that Frankson had written a response to an editorial in the Jamaica Gleaner on February 13, which criticised T&T Prime Minister Patrick Manning for reneging on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to sell natural gas to Jamaica.
Venezuela and Jamaica on Monday signed an MOU which will allow Kingston to buy 2.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually from Caracas— a development that will give impetus to Jamaica’s plan for major developments in the bauxite/alumina and electricity generation sectors.
The agreement, signed at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay by Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, came two weeks after T&T, which was to sell Jamaica 1.15 million tonnes of LNG, backed out of the deal.
The Gleaner wrote in its editorial: “Indeed, the Trinidadians knew that a US$1.6 billion investment by Alcoa to double the capacity of the 1.5 million tonne alumina refinery it jointly owns with the Jamaican Government was predicated on the LNG project that would lower the cost of energy and help make the plant globally competitive.”
Responding to these developments, Quesnel yesterday said there are no hostilities toward Trinidad businesses operating in Jamaica.
In reply to Frankson’s statement that it’s not as easy for Jamaican businesses to set up shop in Trinidad as it is for the latter to operate in Jamaica, Quesnel said: “Trinidad businesses face problems in Trinidad, that it takes well over 18 months to get all necessary approvals to set up a business.”
Quesnel said, too, that all the industrial parks in Trinidad are full and E-Teck, which is responsible for such parks, has not built a new one for the last three years.
Quesnel quoted Frankson as saying that Trinidad had a lot of non-tariff barriers to block Jamaican businesses from entering the Trinidad market, to which he has offered the TTMA’s assistance to any Jamaican business that feels it is being discriminated against.
I haven’t had a call yet. The TTMA is willing to assist any Jamaican or Caricom partner who wishes to set up a business in Trinidad in whatever way we can, be it lobbying government or helping it to get through the paperwork,” Quesnel said.
Quesnel also said that the Jamaica Manufacturers Association has not attended the TTMA’s Trade and Investment Convention (TIC) for the last five years.
They say they can’t do business in Trinidad. If the Jamaicans wanted to do business here, the TIC is an ideal place for them to come, expose their wares, meet all the regional agencies, E-Teck, Customs, the Bureau of Standards, to be able to find out firsthand what they need to do to enter the Trinidad market,” Quesnel said.
Doreen Frankson, president of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association, has threatened to lobby the Jamaica government to ensure that products from T&T do not enter that market as freely as they have been.
So said Paul Quesnel, president of the T&T Manufacturers Association (TTMA), stating that Frankson had written a response to an editorial in the Jamaica Gleaner on February 13, which criticised T&T Prime Minister Patrick Manning for reneging on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to sell natural gas to Jamaica.
Venezuela and Jamaica on Monday signed an MOU which will allow Kingston to buy 2.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) annually from Caracas— a development that will give impetus to Jamaica’s plan for major developments in the bauxite/alumina and electricity generation sectors.
The agreement, signed at the Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay by Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez, came two weeks after T&T, which was to sell Jamaica 1.15 million tonnes of LNG, backed out of the deal.
The Gleaner wrote in its editorial: “Indeed, the Trinidadians knew that a US$1.6 billion investment by Alcoa to double the capacity of the 1.5 million tonne alumina refinery it jointly owns with the Jamaican Government was predicated on the LNG project that would lower the cost of energy and help make the plant globally competitive.”
Responding to these developments, Quesnel yesterday said there are no hostilities toward Trinidad businesses operating in Jamaica.
In reply to Frankson’s statement that it’s not as easy for Jamaican businesses to set up shop in Trinidad as it is for the latter to operate in Jamaica, Quesnel said: “Trinidad businesses face problems in Trinidad, that it takes well over 18 months to get all necessary approvals to set up a business.”
Quesnel said, too, that all the industrial parks in Trinidad are full and E-Teck, which is responsible for such parks, has not built a new one for the last three years.
Quesnel quoted Frankson as saying that Trinidad had a lot of non-tariff barriers to block Jamaican businesses from entering the Trinidad market, to which he has offered the TTMA’s assistance to any Jamaican business that feels it is being discriminated against.
I haven’t had a call yet. The TTMA is willing to assist any Jamaican or Caricom partner who wishes to set up a business in Trinidad in whatever way we can, be it lobbying government or helping it to get through the paperwork,” Quesnel said.
Quesnel also said that the Jamaica Manufacturers Association has not attended the TTMA’s Trade and Investment Convention (TIC) for the last five years.
They say they can’t do business in Trinidad. If the Jamaicans wanted to do business here, the TIC is an ideal place for them to come, expose their wares, meet all the regional agencies, E-Teck, Customs, the Bureau of Standards, to be able to find out firsthand what they need to do to enter the Trinidad market,” Quesnel said.