Latin America is a huge emerging market with many opportunities for T&T. This is the view of Nicholas Galt, chief executive officer of the TSL Group, who, in October, was elected vice-president of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean (AACCLA).
"The United States has finally woke up and realised the power of Latin America as a neighbour, the buying power and the selling power. The opportunities there are huge. T&T companies can be world-class there."In an interview with the Business Guardian on Monday at TSL Group's head office, Woodford Street, Newtown, Galt said when he became president of American Chamber of Commerce of T&T (AmCham) he modified the original mission.
"I changed the mission to foster trade between the Americas and T&T, because we are sitting in a market with South America, which is huge for our manufacturers, for exporting services."He gave the TSL Group as an example of a home-grown company that is expanding in Latin America."We are in Panama, we are partnering with a company there via services. We started our entry into Mexico. Our partner there is already on the ground. We are exporting our services there. We are already working on Colombia. I was also part of the delegation when Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar visited Brazil."
He described the opportunities in Latin America as "huge," especially for competitive local companies."In Panama, I have not found one technology company that is as diverse as our group is. We design the software for all the credit and debit cards that you swipe. We deliver that software to the banks, not only here, but every bank in the Caribbean, and it is done by T&T software developers."
He used T&T's Bermudez Biscuit Company Ltd as an example of a company that took the opportunity to penetrate the Central American market.According to news reports Bermudez has a processing plant for fried plantain pancakes using plantains from 600 nearby plantations."Bermudez just set up a huge manufacturing facility in Costa Rica. They've bitten the bullet and say that they needed to get to Central America. It is a huge market and the way to do it is through a Central American company.
"Look at countries like Brazil. The markets in Latin America are much bigger than the US. Plus, it's developing markets. It is not as if you are getting into a developed market, which is hard to get into there."
Joint ventures and free trade
Galt said there are ways of getting into these new markets. Joint ventures are but one method. "The way to do it is you need to find a partner that is highly respected, that knows the culture, that is the face of business and knows the language. That is your partner in any country. There are countries out there looking for partnerships. Look at the global economy over last few years: everybody is looking for a means to grow. I will not recommend you go alone into a country. It must be through a body on the ground."
Galt spoke about the importance of free trade agreements."We can be competitive in Central and South America. We have an agreement with Costa Rica. Do we have trade agreements that allow us to export items to a non-tariff-based country like Colombia? But to make our items competitive, we need to have an agreement that allows our goods in to those markets without the tariffs."In announcing Galt's vice-presidency in AACCLA, AmCham said, "AACCLA is the most influential voice of United States businesses in Latin America and the Caribbean, and represents more than 20,000 companies and more than 80 per cent of US investment in the region.
"AmCham T&T sees this appointment as a major accomplishment as it means that T&T and Caribbean issues will be at the forefront of the AACCLA's programme of work, which includes advocacy for expanded trade and investment through trade agreements and preference programmes, including Caribbean Basin trade preference," said AmCham T&T in a statement.Galt said the ability to access financing would also help companies in search of new markets in Latin America.
"If we have the access to finance, it would make life a lot simpler for us and even the manufacturers, too. Every country we went into, we dug into our own pockets. It is difficult to do. We have to find areas we are very good at and go into those markets."
Trading in services
As the new vice-president of the AACCLA, Galt wants to see the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) extended to include the services industries because as it stands now, only goods can be traded. Such a change would involve strategic lobbying on Capitol Hill, Washington."I would like to take T&T and the Caribbean agreements and extend them. What we have now is the CBI, and then there is the Caribbean Partnership Free Trade Agreement (CBTPA), which is part of that. It only allows us to trade in goods. What I've been pushing for and knocking on congressmen's door is to try to get extension of CBI to include services, which would allow organisations like ours in the ICT (information and communications technology) field, as well as insurance and finance companies, to be able to provide services into North America.
"The AmChams in this region happen to be the first port of call for any inward foreign direct investment, whether it is in to Latin America or the Caribbean. Any US money coming into this space, they come to these chambers in the individual countries and find out how to do business."AACCLA is a sister arm of the US Chamber of Commerce. Our offices are in the US Chamber building.""Three weeks ago, there was the signing off of the new trade agreements with Panama and the US, Colombia and the US and South Korea and the US. AACCLA has been lobbying for the Panama and Colombia since CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) was passed."
Needing an ally on Capitol Hill
Galt said the Caribbean used to have former New York Democratic representative, Charles B Rangel, lobbying for the Caribbean."I had meetings with Rangel and he used to say people in the Caribbean do not know what they want. I can now tell him what I want is an extension of the CBI into services. But we no longer have Rangel in the Congress as the Caribbean voice."Galt lamented the "problem boils down to Caricom."
"T&T exports to rest of Caricom and we have to toe the line of Caricom. Unfortunately, you have states that are very sovereign. Sometimes there are decisions where people go in different directions. We are seen in Washington as a splintered group."He described T&T's new Ambassador to the US, Dr Neil Parsan, as being very active in trying to push for an expansion of the CBI."Now that the free trade agreements with Panama and Colombia have been completed, we can focus now on the CBI with the US."
