TTMA IN THE NEWS

TTMA pleased to have joined Heads of Government meeting

The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association (TTMA) is seeking to applaud Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon for including the private sector in discussions regarding the Caribbean Heads of Government meeting that took place earlier this week. The two-day meeting was held on November 3rd and 4th. In a statement issued on Thursday, the TTMA noted that it was part of the discussion seeking the interest of its members and the private sector business community in Trinidad and Tobago. Read more here

NEWS

Hadco ships ice cream to Antigua

Just about six months after launching its house brand ice cream, Creamery Novelties, the Hadco Group has loaded up its first 20-foot refrigerated container chock full of its frozen creations, bound for Antigua. The shipment is expected to arrive next week–just in time for Christmas. Hadco Group CEO John Hadad told Newsday, “We did have a goal for one (export container) by the end of the year. We’re quite excited, because it happened faster than we expected.” Read more here

$15m drug accused in court. Traffic gridlock expected in city

Height­ened se­cu­ri­ty in the cap­i­tal city since mid­night is ex­pect­ed to im­pact thou­sands of peo­ple to­day, as one of the main streets lead­ing in­to down­town Port-of-Spain will be cor­doned off to fa­cil­i­tate two high-pro­file crim­i­nal cas­es. Po­lice are ad­vis­ing mo­torists to avoid St Vin­cent Street com­plete­ly and find al­ter­na­tive routes such as Dun­don­ald Street, on­to Rich­mond Street or use the Queen’s Park West ex­it on­to Fred­er­ick Street. High-lev­el na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty sources said se­cu­ri­ty in and around the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court is ex­pect­ed to be on its high­est alert to­day as four sus­pects charged with the $15 mil­lion drug bust in West­moor­ings head to court. Read more here

POLITICS

UNC still seeking answers on Petrotrin—Lee

Still seek­ing an­swers on Petrotrin, for­mer work­ers and the re­fin­ery.

That’s what the Op­po­si­tion’s pur­su­ing ac­cord­ing to Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress whip David Lee, who said yes­ter­day that Gov­ern­ment should have told the pub­lic the val­ue of the re­fin­ery as­sets be­fore “rush­ing” to of­fer them on the in­ter­na­tion­al mar­ket ear­ly next year. The Op­po­si­tion is fil­ing queries on Petrotrin for a re­ply in Par­lia­ment to­day. “The is­sue of pro­cure­ment looms large in this as­pect of the Petrotrin is­sue since Gov­ern­ment has said it will of­fer the re­fin­ery - for in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. We’ve heard about a da­ta room and in­for­ma­tion be­ing pre­pared for peo­ple to learn about the as­sets, but there’s been no pub­lic word on the val­ue or oth­er per­ti­nent de­tails,” Lee said. Lee al­so said de­spite pay­ments to work­ers - in­clud­ing some tem­po­rary work­ers - there are oth­ers who are in “lim­bo” re­gard­ing ben­e­fits since they worked tem­porar­i­ly at Petrotrin for a ma­jor­i­ty of years but were per­ma­nent for a mi­nor­i­ty of years. Read more here

Moonilal: Ministers must explain actions

A call is being made for Government Ministers Dennis Moses and Camille Robinson-Regis to appear before the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on National Security. Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal yesterday wrote to JSC chairman Fitzgerald Hinds asking that the ministers appear and explain their actions in the incident at Piarco International Airport which resulted in estate constable Kelvon Alexander being suspended for two weeks without pay. Read more here

BUSINESS

People ahead of profits

In 1998, a class ac­tion law­suit be­tween the four largest Unit­ed States to­bac­co com­pa­nies (Phillip Mor­ris, RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, and Lo­ril­lard) and the At­tor­neys Gen­er­al of 46 of the 50 Amer­i­can states was set­tled. The to­bac­co com­pa­nies agreed to pay US$206 bil­lion over the first 25 years of the agree­ment. The com­pa­nies al­so agreed to “cur­tail or cease” some mar­ket­ing prac­tices and pay in per­pe­tu­ity an­nu­al pay­ments to the states to com­pen­sate them for med­ical costs as­so­ci­at­ed with smok­ing-re­lat­ed ill­ness­es. The mon­ey al­so funds the an­ti-smok­ing ad­vo­ca­cy group called the Truth Ini­tia­tive, the very group re­spon­si­ble for those ubiq­ui­tous thetruth.com ads. Read more here

Regularise Venezuelans, legalise marijuana, says Chin

Owner of the country’s largest movie theatre network, Derek Chin, has called for the legalisation of marijuana and the regularisation of Venezuelan immigrants in T&T. Read more here

REGIONAL

Be Clear On Gas Pricing - JGRA Boss Calls For Transparency On Alarming Petrojam Pricing Mechanism

The Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA) is expressing concerns with the pricing mechanism used by Petrojam, asking for a clear and transparent explanation. The organisation is also troubled by the excessive losses of fuel being incurred by Petrojam since 2013. These were among a number of issues brought to light in the just tabled Auditor General's report into the operations at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) and its affiliate, the state-owned oil refinery, Petrojam, which JGRA's president, Gregory Chung, found quite alarming. "The JGRA is joining the call for a forensic audit of the entity and to put the necessary measures in place to cauterise the losses," Chung said. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Japan needs immigrants, but do immigrants need Japan?

One of the first concepts Linh Nguyen learned while studying Japanese was "uchi-soto." It refers to the practice of categorizing people into one of two groups -- insiders or outsiders. Family, friends and close acquaintances are insiders, referred to as "uchi," while "soto" is for those relegated to the periphery. Read more here

Yellow vests: France protests 'created a monster', says minister

Anti-government protests in France have "created a monster", France's Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has said. And he is warning that "radical elements" could infiltrate planned "yellow vest" protests at the weekend. Tourist sites in Paris are to close on Saturday amid fears of further street violence. The protests began three weeks ago, initially against a rise in fuel taxes but have spread to take in other issues, including education reforms. Read more here

7th December 2018

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