The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce has reaf­firmed that its mem­bers re­gard Cari­com as a crit­i­cal eco­nom­ic part­ner, amid re­newed pub­lic scruti­ny of re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the re­gion­al bloc.

In a me­dia re­lease, the Cham­ber said Cari­com “re­mains an es­sen­tial source of growth, mar­ket di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, and for­eign ex­change earn­ings” for lo­cal busi­ness­es across man­u­fac­tur­ing, ser­vices, and non-en­er­gy ex­ports.

It added that Trinidad and To­ba­go en­ter­pris­es have “deep and long­stand­ing com­mer­cial ties through­out the re­gion, in­clud­ing es­tab­lished cus­tomers, sup­ply chains, em­ploy­ees, and phys­i­cal in­vest­ments,” not­ing that Cari­com re­mains the coun­try’s sec­ond-largest trad­ing part­ner out­side of the Unit­ed States.

The Cham­ber al­so high­light­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go’s role with­in the re­gion­al group­ing, say­ing the coun­try “has con­sis­tent­ly played a con­struc­tive and in­flu­en­tial role in ad­vanc­ing re­gion­al trade and eco­nom­ic co­op­er­a­tion.”

The com­ments come amid con­tro­ver­sy fol­low­ing re­cent re­marks by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar ques­tion­ing as­pects of Cari­com’s ef­fec­tive­ness. The Prime Min­is­ter said, “Cari­com is not a re­li­able part­ner at this time. The fact is that be­neath the thin mask of uni­ty, there are many widen­ing fis­sures that, if left un­ad­dressed, will lead to its im­plo­sion.”

Those re­marks prompt­ed con­cern across the re­gion, with sev­er­al Cari­com lead­ers warn­ing against ac­tions that could un­der­mine re­gion­al uni­ty and co­op­er­a­tion.

Ad­dress­ing the is­sue, the T&T Cham­ber said it does not view the Prime Min­is­ter’s com­ments as sig­nalling any de­par­ture from Cari­com.

“The T&T Cham­ber does not in­ter­pret the re­cent pub­lic com­ments by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar as any in­di­ca­tion of a with­draw­al from Cari­com,” the or­gan­i­sa­tion said.

In­stead, the Cham­ber said the dis­cus­sion un­der­scores “the on­go­ing need to en­sure that re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion evolves in a man­ner that bal­ances co­op­er­a­tion with re­spect for na­tion­al sov­er­eign­ty, se­cu­ri­ty con­sid­er­a­tions, and do­mes­tic pol­i­cy space, while re­main­ing firm­ly an­chored in shared re­gion­al eco­nom­ic ob­jec­tives.”

Yes­ter­day, Cari­com sec­re­tary-gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett called for deep­er re­gion­al uni­ty, say­ing, “As we re­flect on the chal­lenges the Caribbean has faced this year, they have re­in­forced the val­ue of re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion and the need for uni­ty and col­lec­tive ac­tion to safe­guard peace and re­silience across the Com­mu­ni­ty.”

From the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty’s per­spec­tive, the Cham­ber said cer­tain­ty re­mains para­mount. “From the T&T Cham­ber’s per­spec­tive, the pri­or­i­ty re­mains con­ti­nu­ity and pre­dictabil­i­ty,” the re­lease said.

It added that busi­ness­es are fo­cused on “sus­tained mar­ket ac­cess, ef­fi­cient trade fa­cil­i­ta­tion, and re­li­able trans­port and lo­gis­tics link­ages across the re­gion,” not­ing that these fun­da­men­tals are crit­i­cal for long-term plan­ning and com­pet­i­tive­ness. “It is, there­fore, our hope that these dis­cus­sions do not re­sult in un­in­tend­ed dis­rup­tions to re­gion­al com­merce,” the Cham­ber said.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to the re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion process, say­ing it re­mains “com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing a sta­ble, rules-based, and pre­dictable re­gion­al frame­work that en­ables busi­ness­es to op­er­ate, in­vest, and grow.”

“We reaf­firm our sup­port for Cari­com and for con­tin­ued ef­forts to strength­en re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion in a way that de­liv­ers prac­ti­cal, mea­sur­able ben­e­fits for Trinidad and To­ba­go and our Caribbean part­ners alike,” the Cham­ber said.