TTMA IN THE NEWS

TTMA open to sugar tax talk

The TT Manufacturers Association (TTMA) is open to discussions with the Health Ministry about a sugar tax. At a public hearing of Parliament’s Social Services and Public Administration Joint Select Committee on Wednesday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said the ministry was considering this tax as one method to combat childhood obesity. TTMA president Christopher Alcazar on Thursday said the association remained very open to discussing this issue with the Health Ministry. Saying the issue is not a new one, Alcazar said manufacturers had been taking steps to reduce the amount of sugar in the beverages they produced. Read more here

NEWS

EMA called to probe sand blasting in Freeport

Res­i­dents of Beau­car­ro in Cen­tral Trinidad want the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) sand­blast­ing ac­tiv­i­ties by a petro­chem­i­cal com­pa­ny in Freeport which they claim is af­fect­ing their health. The res­i­dents said they lodged nu­mer­ous re­ports with the EMA be­tween Oc­to­ber to De­cem­ber, the blast­ing op­er­a­tions con­tin­ued. They are con­cerned about the large plumes of dust that are blown in their homes and loud grind­ing sound from the ac­tiv­i­ty. “This go­ing on sev­er­al months—well maybe six to sev­en months now. It does have a prob­lem when the wind turns the dust all over. The noise is an­oth­er prob­lem at nights too,” a res­i­dent said. Read more here

POLITICS

Additional scholars stranded without tuition fees

Na­tion­al schol­ars study­ing med­i­cine in Ja­maica say they will ex­plore their le­gal op­tions if Gov­ern­ment re­fus­es to pay tu­ition as promised. The stu­dents claim they are be­ing told to give up their schol­ar­ships and join the Gov­ern­ment As­sis­tance for Tu­ition Ex­pens­es (GATE) Pro­gramme. On No­vem­ber 23, the par­ent of one of the af­fect­ed stu­dents wrote to Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia ask­ing him to re­con­sid­er the de­ci­sion to not pay the full tu­ition for ad­di­tion­al schol­ars study­ing at the Uni­ver­si­ty of West In­dies (UWI) in Mona, Ja­maica. Ac­cord­ing to the let­ter, the stu­dent earned an ad­di­tion­al schol­ar­ship based on her per­for­mance in the 2018 CAPE ex­am­i­na­tions and ap­plied to the med­ical schools at Mt Hope and Mona. Read more here

BUSINESS

T&T could feel effects of US shutdown

As the longest-ever gov­ern­ment shut­down in Unit­ed States his­to­ry con­tin­ues, there are warn­ings that T&T and oth­er coun­tries in the Caribbean could be af­fect­ed. Econ­o­mist Dr Ronald Ramkissoon said the shut­down can cre­ate greater eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty in the re­gion and he is urg­ing this coun­try’s for­eign af­fairs of­fi­cials to pay clos­er at­ten­tion to is­sues which might di­rect­ly af­fect trade and im­mi­gra­tion. “While the world, the Caribbean in­clud­ed, is more and more turn­ing to de­vel­oped economies for trade, de­pen­dence on North Amer­i­ca and Eu­rope is still crit­i­cal for this re­gion. As such, if the sit­u­a­tion in the US wors­ens there will be im­pli­ca­tions for the Caribbean,” he said. Read more here

Bond markets more attractive in 2019

This week, we at Bourse review the 2018 performance of both local and international fixed income markets. While activity in the local bond market remained rather subdued last year, 2018 proved to be quite a challenging year for investors holdings US dollar bonds. We also examine the key drivers behind the outlook for both markets going forward and take a closer look at potential opportunities for fixed income investors. Read more here

REGIONAL

PJ: Set Up Crime Commission - Former PM Wants Group To Determine SOE Extensions

Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson has proposed the establishment of a national security commission to help tackle the scourge of crime and violence across the country. Currently, there exists a National Security Council chaired by Prime Minister Andrew Holness that focuses on crime and violence at a policy level. Patterson, who was speaking at the Lay Magistrates' Association of Jamaica's Kingston chapter awards banquet on Saturday at Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston, suggested an even bigger role for his proposed commission. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Brexit: May looks for way to break deadlock

Theresa May will try to convince Tory Brexiteers and DUP MPs to back her withdrawal deal by resolving Irish backstop concerns, cabinet sources say.

Last week, Mrs May said she would focus on cross-party talks to get a Brexit deal accepted by Parliament. But it is understood she is now seeking to win approval from her own benches, with the government unlikely to win widespread Labour backing. Downing Street insisted that cross-party talks were continuing. Read more here

Why Trump's plan won't end the government shutdown

It should be good news that both President Donald Trump's Republicans and Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Democrats plan to vote to reopen the government this week. But since they are voting on vastly different plans, this new phase of their confrontation is more likely to expose the gulf between them than to end the longest federal shutdown in history anytime soon. Trump on Saturday made his most significant move yet in an impasse now nearly a month in by offering temporary protections for some undocumented immigrants in return for $5.7 billion in funding for his border wall. Read more here

21st January 2019

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