Moontown

KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — CARICOM is looking to forge closer economic ties with Latin America, a move, which Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Dr Kenneth Baugh said could provide greater opportunities for Jamaican businesses and spur social and economic growth.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dr Kenneth Baugh. JIS Photo

According to Baugh, the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean economically and in trade, offers the opportunity for Jamaica to cater to a larger marketplace.

He argued that exploring new marketplaces will create better prospects for local industries and the economy overall.

“This will ultimately increase opportunities for employment, export and revenue as we export our goods in these larger markets,” he said.

According to Baugh, several Latin American countries are “bearing down on the door of Jamaica” to do business. These include the Dominican Republic, which has applied for membership to CARICOM, Costa Rica, Colombia and Panama.

He said that the gathering of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the hemisphere in Montego Bay in early November provided the country with the perfect platform for exploring several avenues towards strengthening ties with its Latin American neighbours.

At the conference, which attracted some 34 foreign ministers from the hemisphere, Jamaica’s application to become a member of the Rio Group was approved.

Founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1986, the Rio Group has as its objective the creation of a regional mechanism for dialogue and concerted political agreement. Jamaica shares the group’s commitment to the preservation of peace, the promotion of democratic values, respect for the rule of law and the fostering of multilateralism.

Beginning with only a core membership of six, the group continues to seek a common foreign policy position for its members, which include Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela.

Baugh told JIS News that the meeting in Montego Bay in no way rivaled the importance of CARICOM, rather, it complemented it.

He said the assembly was “long overdue” and came about at the request of Prime Minister Bruce Golding, when he went to a meeting of Heads of Government in Brazil in 2008, and offered to host the meeting as a preparatory step to a summit of Heads in Mexico in 2010.

“So, this is CARICOM integrating with Latin America. This is long overdue in this hemisphere,” he stated.

He said that, already, a number of CARICOM countries have arrangements with Spanish-speaking countries; for example, Guyana is working with MERCOSUR, which is the “Common Market of the South,” and the largest trading bloc in South America.

MERCOSUR’s primary interest is to eliminate obstacles to regional trade, like high tariffs, income inequalities, or conflicting technical requirements for bringing products to market.

Baugh, who is Chairman of the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) and the official CARICOM representative to the Rio Group, said economic co-operation between CARICOM and the region is definitely achievable.

“I am anticipating the formation of a Latin American and Caribbean group eventually absorbing North America and that would be good for us because then you’re talking about a marketplace of maybe a billion people. It can only help Jamaica and the Caribbean if we become a part of this,” he noted.

It is therefore incumbent on Jamaican producers and manufacturers to begin retooling their operations in order to take advantage of the opportunities when they become available.

“Doing so would definitely turn around the trade imbalance where Jamaica exports only about US$66 million in intra-CARICOM trade, while importing some US$1.66 billion,” Baugh stated, noting that Trinidad and Tobago has already re-tooled its industries and is reaping the benefits.

He also pointed to the need for the people of the Caribbean, especially Jamaicans, to re-certify themselves, to learn Spanish and be ready to take advantage of the opportunities the hemispheric agreements will bring.

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) — Nine sailors were killed and five were burnt in a Christmas Day blaze aboard a Greek freighter in waters off a Venezuelan Caribbean island, the official Venezuelan news agency ABN reported on Friday.

It quoted Admiral Carlos Maximo Aniasi, commander of Venezuela’s navy, as saying the blaze broke out in an engine room of the “Aegean Wind” before dawn and spread upward on the vessel which was carrying iron ore from Brazil to Houston and had a 24-strong crew.

“Nine bodies were found in different compartments of the Greek ship,” the admiral said.

The bodies belonged to nine sailors reported missing earlier in the day on the ship 33 nautical miles (61 km) northeast of the island of La Blanquilla, Aniasi said. The navy’s communications office declined comment on the ABN report.

Two Philippine nationals suffered third-degree burns on their face and hands and three Greek crew mates had less sever burns, said Rafael Lugo, the national commander of Venezuela’s Maritime Rescue and Aid service.

Ten surviving crew members, including a woman, were on the deck, Lugo said.

He told Reuters a Venezuelan navy helicopter lowered a cable to the deck, picked up the injured and took them to a hospital in Margarita, a Caribbean island that is Venezuela’s leading seaside resort and is packed with tourists during Christmas vacation.

One of the injured sailors was later flown to Caracas for treatment at a military hospital, Aniasi said.

The cause of the blaze was unknown and the “Aegean Sea” would be towed to Margarita, the admiral added.

Lugo told Reuters the lifeboats of the “Aegean Wind” were intact on the ship, with no signs that there had been efforts to loosen them to abandon ship.

The Venezuelan navy sent a patrol boat with paramedics and rescue personnel to further search the ship below deck, which was filled with thick smoke, he said.

A coast guard official said the blaze was under control. The Venezuelan navy is sending a helicopter with navy firemen on board to extinguish the blaze, the admiral told Globovision TV.

Earlier on Friday, a Greek coast guard official said in Athens: “The fire is under control, there is no risk of sinking. Of the missing crew, three are Greek and the rest Philippine nationals.”

Operated by Athens-based Atlantic Bulk Carriers, the ship was built in 1983 and has a crew of 24.

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez. AFP PHOTO

“For the love of God, let’s halt this, let’s put the brakes on this consumerist, capitalist insanity, that leads us to lose our spiritual values,” said Chavez.

“Let’s sit with children and tell them stories of Bolivar, of the motherland,” the firebrand leftist leader said, speaking at a public event late Wednesday broadcast on government television.

Chavez called on Venezuelans to reject buying toys “that as mothers and fathers we are practically forced” to buy.

“Why do we have to buy new clothes each December?” he asked. The sales do not benefit the small merchants, but “their owners, the wealthy, the big distributors that make a bundle squeezing people.”

Chavez added: “I make this appeal from my heart to put aside these vices.” (Caribnet)

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - Jamaica’s prime minister, citing “public anger,” has reshaped a tax package required to obtain a $1.3 billion loan from the IMF by restoring an exemption on many basic foods and services and raising rates for the highest income earners.

Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding. JIS Photo

In a broadcast to the Caribbean nation late on Wednesday, Premier Bruce Golding spelled out significant revisions to the government’s week-old tax package in response to what he called “loud and profound” opposition from the Jamaican people.

The original package aimed at raising an additional J$21.8 billion in taxes was part of a broad agreement on an economic program announced last Thursday for Jamaica to receive the $1.3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

It had included broadening a General Consumption Tax (GCT) to include previously exempt basic foods and items, such as vegetables, bread, sardines, animal meal and fishing gear.

Citing public outcry, Golding said the exemption on these basic items was being restored, although the announced GCT rate increase to 17.5 percent from 16.5 percent would remain.

Restoring the exemptions would “lessen the impact, especially on the poor and low-income families,” he said.

“This government does not have to await an eruption to recognize that it has to change course … We have listened, and we have heard,” the prime minister said in his broadcast.

But he stressed Jamaica urgently needed to raise extra tax revenue to obtain the international financial support it needed to confront the impact on its economy of the global recession. The recession has hit tourism on the Caribbean island and dented demand for key exports of bauxite and alumina.

“Without that additional revenue, there will be no IMF program,” Golding said. “Without the money from the IMF, the exchange rate would come under severe pressure because, with the fallout in bauxite and alumina earnings, remittances and other inflows, we would have difficulty in meeting the demand for foreign exchange,” he added.

“Without an IMF agreement, the additional funds from the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank which we need to support the budget would not be forthcoming.”

Citing “the principle of sharing the burden more proportionately, more equitably,” Golding announced new income tax increases for high-earning categories.

Individuals earning more than J$5 million annually would be required to pay an additional 2.5 per cent, while those earning more than J$10 million each year would have to pay an additional 10 per cent. This would be a temporary measure applying from Jan. 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011.

All Jamaicans already pay a flat income tax rate of 25 per cent of salary.

Golding also announced additional tax rates ranging between 20 and 25 percent for certain luxury goods, such as jewelry , large-size television sets, shotguns, jet skis and pleasure boats.

The prime minister said he had consulted with IMF officials in redesigning the tax package, which will form part of the medium term economic program being presented by the government to obtain the IMF loan, expected in the New Year.

Golding said last week that the loan terms included “harsh conditions” that would require imposing new taxes and cutting government jobs. For details see [ID:nN14181533]

Ratings agencies have already downgraded Jamaica’s credit ratings as delays in negotiating the critical deal with the IMF have eroded investor confidence in the country, which remains dependent on disbursements from multilateral institutions. (Caribnet)

Elizabeth Williams Tobago Bureau

The approach to tourism for 2010 in Tobago needs to be revised, according to Carol Ann Birchwood-James, head of the island’s Hotel and Tourism Association.

She told the Express on Wednesday, the present occupancy rate on the island was not as good as it was last year, and the hotel industry in Tobago is facing challenging times.

’We are going to have to re-examine our marketing initiatives. We have already formulated a few, that is the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association. We go back to Trinidad, on January 10, at MovieTowne, and we would continue those road shows in Trinidad,’ Birchwood-James said.

She said the approach to Tourism in Tobago was a holistic one, and all hands needed to be on deck.

She said the increased occupancy rate for hotels and guest houses, should not be dependent on the Tobago House of Assembly, the Central Government or the tourism association, as everyone had to do their part to increase and improve the tourism numbers.

’You cannot sit down in your business place and expect guests to come with the efforts of a few. The effort must be all of us. It’s our economy, its our island, we need to claim this island and participate in whatever occurs, when it comes to marketing Tobago.’

Birchwood-James added, no more tourism workers should be sent home in the tourism industry as $26.7 million had been given by the Tobago House of Assembly as a stimulus package and persons who have sent their applications would receive their monies before the end of the year.

The stimulus plan has two purposes, which is to keep employment levels up, and to help with operational costs.

’I would like to implore Tobagonians in the tourism industry, whether in diving, tour operating, bed and breakfast, come and find out if your category is covered and apply for the stimulus plan,’ Birchwood-James said.

This, she said, is a loan-to-grant package, and once people are kept employed as well as to keep their businesses open, it turns into a grant. (Trinidad Express)

Rohandra John

ONE-MAN PROTEST: Activist Ishmael Samad yesterday with a kerosene stove. -Photo: JERMAINE CRUICKSHANK

Human rights activist Ishmael Samad yesterday staged a dawn-to-dusk vigil outside the Prime Minister’s St Ann’s residence as he called on the Government to remember the plight of Haiti whose citizens are forced to eat mud pies because they cannot afford ham and turkey.

Samad, who gave up spending time with his own family, said that the nation must not forget the Haitians who are ’sinking deeper and deeper’ into poverty with each day that goes by.

’We must think of our Haitian brothers and sisters during this season of good-will. We in Trinidad, we have oil and so many resources, we can afford to help the Haitians. Haiti is energy poor, 99 per cent of their trees are gone and they are using charcoal to cook. The people are so poor they cannot even afford kerosene.’

Samad said that one way the Government of this country can help Haiti is to donate kerosene stoves to the people because they need an alternative to charcoal.

Samad said kerosene stoves are commonly used by people in Indonesia and throughout the Asian sub-continent. He said a kerosene stove costs only US$50.

’We have the money and the resources, we are in a position where we can help. The Government is spending millions of dollars to construct all these buildings and to change the sky-line of Port of Spain, so it will cost us nothing much if we were to purchase some of these stoves and donate them to the Haitian people.’

Samad said that he has written a number of letters to the Prime Minister on this issue and ’his Permanent Secretary responded and said that this country was trying to help through Caricom, but that is not enough. We need to do more to help our Haitian brothers and sisters,’ he added. (Trinidad Express)

Elizabeth Williams

At work: Fire officers at the scene of yesterday’s early morning blaze which destroyed several businesses in Scarborough, Tobago. —Photo: ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

A $30 million fire in Tobago has left 95 people jobless. The inferno brought tears to many on Christmas morning, as two buildings belonging to the Phillips family, of Scarborough, were ablaze, shortly before 4 a.m. yesterday. There were no reports of any injuries. Firefighters took nine and a half hours to extinguish the blaze. The fire at the mini-mall complex, comprising two buildings, which housed several businesses, spanned from Piggott Street to Castries Street, drew scores of curious people to the scene.

Preliminary investigations by fire officials suggest the fire started on the top floor and spread from south to north rapidly.

There was also reverse spread of the fire in a southerly direction, which caused the building owned by the Arnold family to suffer damage in the vicinity of $30,000, a senior fire officer told the Express.

The Unit Trust Corporation building suffered approximately $10,000 in damage, while a building occupied by David Maharaj, owned by the Alis, suffered minor damage to the roof and bash board, this was quickly extinguished.

High tension T&TEC wires and street lights were also damaged. The store owned by the Phillip family was not insured. However, the office belonging to attorney Anthony Arnold was insured, fire officials told the Express. Dale Phillips, owner of Phillips Legacy, said it was a big loss but he was thankful for life.

The Phillips store has been around for the past 61 years, and the building is approximately 35 years old, according to Dale Phillips. The building housed approximately 16 tenants, including Price is Right, J Puter Teck, Hercules Hardware, a bridal store, and a Chinese restaurant.

“From the time I heard the phone rang at that hour I say is something big, and you know with all my years experience, I know it ain’t no thief Christmas morning. We will bounce back, and as early as Monday morning I would be opening for business at Canaan,” Phillips said.

Phillips said it seems fire officials needed additional help, as at one point officials were calling for more water. “We see one or two firemen was on top this building, they were asking for water, they were asking for water. Two or three people reach me and say, why they ain’t bring water from the sea.”

Fire officials told the Express five fire tenders were used to fight the blaze: two from Crown Point and three from Scarborough. Officers who were also off duty as well as those on holidays also responded to assist their colleagues, a senior fire officer said.

The intense heat cracked window panes at the nearby RBTT branch and at the Phillips Fabric Store and the UTC, fire officers said.

Minority Leader Ashworth Jack, who was also on the scene, said proper equipment was needed for fire officials in Tobago. He said he observed a number of leaking hoses at the scene.

“I have also observed, we seem to have a water problem, and we seem to have an equipment problem with the Fire Service. I am seeing some leaks that are bigger than the nozzle,” he said.

Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Orville London said while the matter was a sensitive one, political mileage should not be grasped.

The cause for the blaze is yet to be determined.

The exercise was supervised by Acting Assistant Chief Fire Officer Karl Williams and Acting Divisional Officer Denzil Sandy. (Trinidad Express)