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