TTMA and Amcham T&T are call­ing for re­newed com­mer­cial en­gage­ment with Venezuela to go be­yond en­er­gy, as the they see op­por­tu­ni­ties for lo­cal man­u­fac­tur­ers, ex­porters, and in­vestors as re­la­tions be­tween the two coun­tries im­prove.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA), in a re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, con­grat­u­lat­ed For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Sean Sobers and Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary Ran­dall Karim on their en­gage­ment with Venezuela.

TTMA said the dis­cus­sions have cre­at­ed a roadmap for greater co­op­er­a­tion in trade, en­er­gy, agri­cul­ture, en­vi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, cul­ture, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and cross-bor­der mat­ters.

The as­so­ci­a­tion is propos­ing a ded­i­cat­ed non-en­er­gy trade agree­ment or pro­to­col be­tween T&T and Venezuela to op­er­ate along­side any en­er­gy agree­ments.

TTMA said the ex­ist­ing Cari­com-Venezuela Agree­ment on Trade and In­vest­ment pro­vides a foun­da­tion, but does not cov­er the full com­mer­cial op­por­tu­ni­ty avail­able to T&T man­u­fac­tur­ers.

It wants the pro­posed arrange­ment to pro­vide du­ty-free ac­cess for a ne­go­ti­at­ed list of lo­cal­ly man­u­fac­tured and val­ue-added prod­ucts, while re­duc­ing non-tar­iff bar­ri­ers such as im­port li­cens­ing de­lays, reg­is­tra­tion re­quire­ments, prod­uct ap­provals, la­belling re­quire­ments, for­eign-ex­change re­stric­tions, port pro­ce­dures and cus­toms doc­u­men­ta­tion.

TTMA al­so wants clear rules of ori­gin, pre­dictable cus­toms pro­ce­dures and mech­a­nisms to help busi­ness­es re­solve mar­ket-ac­cess prob­lems.

TTMA said T&T’s ge­o­graph­ic prox­im­i­ty to Venezuela could give lo­cal pro­duc­ers an ad­van­tage as com­mer­cial chan­nels re­open.

It al­so sees po­ten­tial for in­creased pro­duc­tion, lo­gis­tics ac­tiv­i­ty, in­vest­ment, em­ploy­ment and joint ven­tures.

Al­so, the Amer­i­can Cham­ber of Com­merce of Trinidad and To­ba­go (Am­cham T&T) al­so wel­comed Sobers’ re­cent vis­it to Venezuela and the re­newed fo­cus on re­la­tions with the coun­try.

Am­cham T&T CEO Ni­rad Tewarie said stronger bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions could cre­ate op­por­tu­ni­ties in trade, in­vest­ment and en­er­gy.

“Stronger bi­lat­er­al re­la­tions with Venezuela have the po­ten­tial to cre­ate mean­ing­ful op­por­tu­ni­ties for this coun­try to go across trade, in­vest­ment and en­er­gy, while strength­en­ing both coun­tries’ eco­nom­ic re­silience and com­pet­i­tive­ness,” Tewarie said.

He point­ed to the coun­tries’ ge­o­graph­ic prox­im­i­ty and shared en­er­gy in­ter­ests as ar­eas where deep­er co­op­er­a­tion could sup­port en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty and the de­vel­op­ment of the en­er­gy and down­stream sec­tors.