Daily Brief - Thursday 17th January, 2019

NEWS

US embassy still issuing visas

Despite the financial shutdown of the US Government, the US Embassy in Port of Spain will continue to process US visa applications, according to embassy postings on social media. The US embassy’s website contains a statement from last December that says: “The United States of America is currently in a Lapse of Appropriations period starting Saturday, December 22, 2018. Read more here

Aboud: Declare Buccoo Reef sensitive area

Sec­re­tary of the en­vi­ron­men­tal ac­tivist group Fish­er­men and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) Gary Aboud says his or­gan­i­sa­tion is not sure if it should mourn or cel­e­brate San­dals’ with­draw­al as they wel­come de­vel­op­ment for To­ba­go. How­ev­er, Aboud said now is the time to have the Buc­coo Reef as an En­vi­ron­men­tal­ly Sen­si­tive Area. In 2004, the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) took steps to des­ig­nate Buc­coo Reef Na­tion­al Park as an en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive area (ESA). Read more here

 

POLITICS

La Brea dry dock construction later this year

Energy Minister Franklin Khan says construction on the La Brea dry dock facility should begin in the latter part of this year as part of plans to create 3,500 direct and 5,700 indirect jobs in the southwestern peninsula. He said the project was moving forward to direct negotiations and reiterated this was the first time Chinese direct equity investment was being made available outside of China with China Harbour Engineering having 30 per cent equity in the facility. Read more here

Ministry to impose sugar tax on beverages

The Min­istry of Health is mov­ing to im­pose a "sug­ar tax" on bev­er­age man­u­fac­tur­ers in T&T. The rev­e­la­tion was made at a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) on So­cial Ser­vices and Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion chaired by Paul Richards, at the J Hamil­ton Room, Par­lia­ment Build­ing, Port-of-Spain, to­day. The JSC meet of­fi­cials from the Min­istries of Health and Ed­u­ca­tion to ex­am­ine the lev­el of child obe­si­ty and the State's in­ter­ven­tion to pro­mote healthy lifestyles among chil­dren. Richards not­ed that in de­vel­oped coun­tries there has been a strong lob­by by par­ents and health groups against drinks laced with sug­ar, as he en­quired what we have been do­ing to com­bat this. Read more here

 

BUSINESS

Sandals is gone: but we can still bet the farm

Steaming mud, blazing sun and the darker shadow of our history weigh heavy in the imagination. This are the images of farming in the tropics. Enticed by oily promise and eager to forget the past, we abandoned agriculture. It now comprises just 0.4 per cent of GDP, according to the Finance Ministry. And with Sandals gone, we must look elsewhere for growth. Farmers are plagued by thieves, pests and pestilence. They battle with soil erosion and illegal chemical dumping on arable lands. They cannot get workers. And managing water is difficult. Read more here

Higher US gas prices could be good news

The Unit­ed States En­er­gy In­for­ma­tion Agency (USEIA) is re­port­ing that in 2018 nat­ur­al gas prices in the US av­er­aged 15 cents high­er per mil­lion British Ther­mal Units (mmb­tu) in 2018 than it did in 2017. This is en­cour­ag­ing news for T&T in two ways. First­ly, a lot of the coun­try’s liq­ue­fied nat­ur­al gas (LNG) ex­ports are tied to the US prices at the Hen­ry Hub and there­fore high­er US prices should re­sult in high­er rev­enues for the gov­ern­ment and sec­ond­ly the petro­chem­i­cal sec­tor, which has been made to pay high­er nat­ur­al gas prices by the NGC and may be able to bet­ter com­pete with US com­pa­nies which would have al­so faced high­er prices in 2018. Read more here

 

REGIONAL

Ministry Blasts Traffic Ticket System As Unreliable - Justice Ministry Levels Scathing Criticisms At Police Traffic Structure

The Justice ministry has delivered a scathing indictment of the system used by the police to record traffic tickets issued to motorists, revealing publicly that there are "deficits in the accuracy and adequacy" of information sent to the courts, causing some judges not to issue arrest warrants for delinquent drivers. The criticism of the Traffic Ticket Management System (TTMS) unfolded before a parliamentary committee yesterday even as a senior police commander touted the over four million traffic tickets issued by cops in the last 10 years raking in over $8 billion in fines for the Government. Read more here

 

INTERNATIONAL

Trump's shutdown nightmare: A choice between the economy and the wall

If the government shutdown lasts much longer, President Donald Trump's only way out may involve a choice between two pillars of his political viability -- his border wall and his purring economy. More and more Americans are feeling the effects of the partial shutdown every day, from travelers stuck in security lines to Coast Guard officers now joining the hundreds of thousands of federal employees going without pay. Yet the normal political pressure points that usually end shutdown standoffs are not working, perhaps because of the unique dynamics of the Trump era. As a result, there's every chance that the stalemate now in its 27th day could drag on much longer. Read more here

Brexit: Theresa May pushes for cross-party consensus

Theresa May is meeting MPs to try to find a way forward for Brexit, after her slim victory in the no-confidence vote. The PM saw off a bid to remove her government from power by 325 to 306 votes, the day after her plan for leaving the EU was rejected. Afterwards, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn refused to join talks unless the threat of a no-deal exit was ruled out. The PM said she wanted to approach discussions in a "constructive spirit". Read more here

17th January 2019

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