Latest data from the Central Bank shows that T&T recorded a trade surplus of US$407.60 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.Historically, from 1995 until 2012, T&T's balance of trade averaged US$616.37 million, reaching an all-time high of US$3217.90 million in September 2008 and a record low of US$378.70 million in March 2004.
This country mainly exports natural gas and oil, ammonia, alcohols, iron, fertilisers, and iron and steel and mainly imports oil, iron ore, fuel, vehicles, water heaters, ethyl alcohol, iron and steel, pumps and catalysts.T&T's main trading partner is the United States, accounting for around 45 per cent of total trade. Others trading partners are Jamaica, Spain, Colombia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia and the Dominican Republic.
However, the arrangement fell apart, with Jamaica claiming that T&T back out at the last minute.There have also been tensions between the two nations over energy subsidies. Jamaica accuses T&T of providing unfair energy subsidies to its manufacturers, giving this country's manufacturers a huge competitive advantage in trade
Peanut Gallery
In 2010, then agriculture minister in Jamaica Dr Christopher Tufton accused T&T of using unfair practices to dominate Caricom's agro-processing sector.Tufton said T&T agro-processors have been using raw materials imported from outside the region with "unclear duty arrangements" and as a result Jamaican producers are not operating on a level playing field with their Trinidadian counterparts.
"It is a concern to me that my peanut farmers are unable to compete for the demand of agro-processors due to peanuts from our Caricom partner, imported extra-regionally and processed with subsidised energy," Tufton said.He said it was a long-standing practice for T&T to misinterpret WTO rules to Jamaica's detriment.
The strong anti-Trinidad sentiment being expressed corporate Jamaica is not aimed at T&T-owned companies operating in that country. It is widely understood that those companies make significant contributions to Jamaica by employing thousands of people there and paying hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes annually. Instead, at the core of the ill feelings is the perception of an uneven playing field between the two countries which heavily favours T&T.
Jamaica has been struggling for some time with a widening trade deficit with Caricom, now nearly US$1.2 billion. That country is the largest market in Caricom, importing approximately 30 per cent of total intra?regional exports, while produces less than 2 per cent of those exports.In does not help that T&T accounts for the bulk of the trade deficit between Jamaica and Caricom. The trade deficit between the two countries is vastly in favour of T&T and is estimated to be more than US$1 billion a year.
This raises questions about transparency and fair-play within the context of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), which was designed to facilitate intra-regional trade as well as against a backdrop of WTO guidelines.Soon after she came into office in 2010, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, on an official visit to Jamaica, promised to address the many trade disputes between the two countries.
In an address to Jamaica's business community, Persad-Bissessar acknowledged that there had been concerns about a "few perceived issues" which were impacting on the bilateral commercial relationship between Jamaica and T&T."We will assess and reassess and review and where we can find amicable solutions that will endure and enure for the benefit of our people here in Jamaica and in Trinidad and Tobago," she had said then.However, almost three years later, no end is in sight to the trade wars.
