TTMA IN THE NEWS

Manufacturers not increasing prices—TTMA CEO

Trade Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon says she has been get­ting re­ports of price goug­ing in the af­ter­math of re­cent floods in parts of the coun­try. “It’s the ex­pect­ed thing,” she said in an in­ter­view on CNC3’s Busi­ness Watch on Wednes­day. “Usu­al­ly when you have a cri­sis and par­tic­u­lar­ly when you’ve had ex­ten­sive floods as we’ve seen over the last few days...whilst there are those who are be­ing very gen­er­ous, there are those who are tak­ing the op­por­tu­ni­ty to in­crease prices be­yond which is fair.” Gopee-Scoon said re­cent price in­creas­es have pri­mar­i­ly re­volved around poul­try and ap­pli­ances. Weigh­ing in on the is­sue, T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) CEO, Dr Ramesh Ramdeen said man­u­fac­tur­ers have been sub­si­diz­ing their of­fer­ings to dis­trib­u­tors and re­tail­ers, in ad­di­tion to do­nat­ing free items. Read more here

NEWS

Energy chamber: Reform of industrial sector needed

Citing the Appeal Court’s recent judgment in overturning a decision by the Industrial Court, the Energy Chamber has added its voice calling for reform of TT’s industrial relations legislative framework. In a press release, the Chamber stated the current “legal wrangling” at the Industrial Court and the Appeal Court over the closure of the Petrotrin’s oil refinery and the injunction preventing TSTT from consolidating its residential fibre optic cable business has highlighted the need for “serious reform” of the sector. Read more here

Lakshmi President's Medal winner

Pres­i­dent’s Gold Medal win­ner Am­ri­ta Singh is urg­ing all of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s young girls to keep push­ing and nev­er give up on their dreams. Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia last evening af­ter cop­ping the high­est award for the Ad­vanced Pro­fi­cien­cy Ex­ams (A Lev­els), Singh said, “There is noth­ing that a woman can’t do that a man can do. We are equal­ly as strong and pow­er­ful and we are mak­ing our mark in the world in the way that we are go­ing.” The for­mer Lak­sh­mi Girls’ Hin­du Col­lege stu­dent shared the ac­co­lade along­side for­mer St Joseph’s Con­vent, San Fer­nan­do stu­dent Sad­hana Bal­ladin. Read more here

Five men killed by cops

Five men were killed by the police on Thursday night. Four have so far been identified only as Meshack, Crash, Shaquille and Kadeem Williams. There was no immediate identificaiton for the fifth man. At about 10 p.m. officers of the Inter Agency Task Force went to a house in Trou Macaque, Laventille. Read more here

POLITICS

Panday: New party coming along well

In late May, former UNC MP Mickela Panday received the mandate from a large crowd at Gaston Courts in Chaguanas to form a new political party. Almost five months later, Panday says plans are “coming along very well” as her steering committee has decided on a name and symbol for the party. “We have decided on a name and symbol and will contact you with the date, time and place when this will be announced,” she stated in an email when asked about the status of the new party. Read more here

$20,000 kick start for hard hit flood victims

Two new speedy flood re­lief grants for those vic­tims hard­est hit. And a de­fer­ral “bligh” on Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) pay­ments for flood vic­tims un­til Jan­u­ary. That’s among the lat­est as­sis­tance Gov­ern­ment is giv­ing those who suf­fered great loss­es from last week­end’s floods. A fam­i­ly with­out chil­dren who suf­fered cat­a­stroph­ic dam­age from flood wa­ters en­ter­ing their liv­ing space is el­i­gi­ble for a flat grant of $15,000. A sim­i­lar fam­i­ly with chil­dren will be el­i­gi­ble for a flat grant of $20,000, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley an­nounced at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net me­dia brief­ing. Read more here

BUSINESS

US Ambassador: Investors want transparency

New­ly-ap­point­ed Unit­ed States Am­bas­sador to T&T Joseph Mon­del­lo agrees that this coun­try needs in­vest­ment. How­ev­er, he point­ed out that what in­vestors want more than any­thing else—es­pe­cial­ly when look­ing for new mar­kets—are trans­paren­cy, sta­bil­i­ty, and pre­dictabil­i­ty. “There are many things we can do to­geth­er in these ar­eas to im­prove Trinidad and To­ba­go’s in­vest­ment en­vi­ron­ment. Al­ready, the Unit­ed States is a strong part­ner in the fight to re­duce wide­spread crime and im­prove sta­bil­i­ty,” he said. ”In the last five years alone, the Unit­ed States has in­vest­ed near­ly US $10 mil­lion to build law en­force­ment and ju­di­cial ca­pac­i­ty. Read more here

No increase in chicken price

The Poultry Association of Trinidad and Tobago is assuring the public that there will be no hike in the price of chicken, although some producers and farms have lost birds in last weekend’s floods. Read more here

REGIONAL

No Shield For Cops - Mark Goes Hard On ‘Corrupt, Criminal, Beyond Help’ JCF

Twenty per cent of the men and women in the police force, including senior officers, are "corrupt criminals and totally beyond help", a former high-ranking member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) has asserted. Mark Shields, the British-trained cop who served in the JCF for nearly 15 years before stepping down as deputy commissioner, asserted, too, that another 60 per cent would engage in corrupt practices "if the circumstances arise". The other 20 per cent are "beyond reproach", Shields said, noting that his assessment was based on what he was told by a senior member of the JCF. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

Pipe bomb scare reveals Trump's uneasy embrace of the presidency

Washington is locked in a destructive and acrimonious ritual that plays out every time President Donald Trump is called upon to lead in a moment of national peril -- and that ensures that America's political estrangement will only deepen. The controversy over explosive devices sent to prominent Democrats, a liberal billionaire and CNN -- all frequent targets of the President's rhetoric -- is following a pattern repeated over and over during over 21 tumultuous months. When a natural disaster, a political controversy or a mass shooting takes place, the media and political establishment set expectations for Trump to invoke a poetic vision of common purpose and unity, craving a spectacle in line with the traditional conventions of the presidency at great historical moments. Read more here

Khashoggi murder: Son arrives in US from Saudi Arabia

The eldest son of the murdered Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, has arrived in the US from Saudi Arabia along with his family. Salah Khashoggi had previously been barred from leaving Saudi Arabia because of his father's criticism of the country's leadership. Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul three weeks ago, investigators say. Saudi Arabia's public prosecutor is due to travel to Turkey on Sunday. Saudi officials deny the involvement of the royal family, including de factor ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in the murder. Read more here

26th October 2018

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