PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — A senior Trinidad and Tobago government minister, Tuesday, took the St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, to task over his recent remarks regarding trading relations between the two CARICOM countries.
Addressing the recent Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Assembly of government and opposition legislators in Kingstown, Gonsalves spoke of the difficulties being experienced by farmers in his country when they sell their produce to businesses in Port of Spain.
He said that before the OECS signed on to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the 15-member grouping, the OECS had conducted a study which confirmed that “the CARICOM arrangements disadvantaged the OECS manufacturing sector”.
Gonsalves said the second grievance related to foreign exchange, saying that the control arrangements in Trinidad and Tobago have “conspired to reduce to near nothingness a hitherto US$12 to US$15 million annual trade in agricultural export from SVG.
“This injustice has caused manifest material difficulties to farmers and agro traders in my country. Our country pays Trinidad and Tobago annually in excess of US$65 million. We pay in hard foreign currency for visible exports from Trinidad, mainly petroleum products and manufactured goods. But our sister CARICOM country cannot find less than a miserly four million US dollars in foreign exchange to pay for our agricultural products.
“This is absolutely unfair and ridiculous. Our traders are paid in Trinidad and Tobago dollars, which are not convertible outside of Trinidad and Tobago. In Trinidad, they have to use the money to buy goods in Trinidad if they want to make some money on the back end. If they bring up the Trinidad and Tobago money, may as well they bring up Monopoly money.”
But as he addressed the Society of Petroleum Engineers of Trinidad and Tobago’s 2025 Mature Basin Energy Symposium here, Energy and Energy Industries Minister, Roodal Moonilal, responded to Gonsalves’ position.
Moonilal said that the energy sector remains the central tenet of Trinidad and Tobago’s economic development and that the sector will continue to be the main contributor of wealth for the nation as well as the source of much-needed foreign exchange.
“Sadly, I recently took note of a statement made by the Honourable Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where he made comments on Trinidad and Tobago’s forex situation and compared our money to monopoly money.
“He should have shared his wisdom with his colleagues who are responsible for the collapse of our economy. It is a pity he did not share his thinking with the former administration over the last decade which could have reversed this crisis with prudent management and enhanced investments in the energy sector.”
Moonilal was referring to the People’s National Movement administration headed by former prime ministers Keith Rowley and Stuart Young over the past nine and a half years. That government lost the April 28 general election to the United National Congress-led coalition.
Moonilal said that the closure of the state-owned Petrotrin and the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery “contributed in no small measure for the decline in forex”, telling the symposium, “on another occasion we will speak on our plans to restart the refinery”.
This issue was raised years ago while the PNM was in power in Trinidad so the Minister is wrong . I do agree with our Prime Minister the t&t currency is useless when its out of t&t