By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
August 30, 2022
Holness visits TT for 60TH ANNIVERSARY, Talks CSME Trade, Crime and Cybersecurity.
Trinidad and Tobago has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Jamaica to share cybersecurity information as a matter of national security importance to both nations. The signing comes as Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness visited the twin island state ahead of its Independence Day celebrations marking its 60th anniversary, a milestone also observed by Jamaica in recent weeks.
Prime Minister Holness met with TT PM Dr. Keith Rowley on Monday, and held a press conference to share some of what centered around their discussions.
Arising from the two parties, the MOU on cybersecurity prompted some discussions on the operations of information sharing between the countries, with particular focus on the effect external forces has small arms and assault weapons coming in from the United States.
Both leaders said while it looked at the issue of national security from a multi-dimensional perspective, cybersecurity, was a main area they needed to focus more attention on, citing that there was a real issue of crime and violence, a commonality observed in both nations.
PM Holness said it was “important the Jamaican and Trinidadian public come to a realization that countries like ours at our stage of development with this economic profile and our culture and historical factors do play a role and probably explain why violence is used so often or is the choice of action to resolve conflict in our society. We really need to take a public health approach as why is it that violence features so heavily in our social transactions and how we resolve conflict”.
To this, he said both prime ministers swapped notes on what respective governments were doing to tackle the issue of crime. Holness said his government had established “a national commission for the prevention of violence to really study the pathology and to coordinate the government actions toward a more systematic approach in treating with violence”. Both him and PM Rowley said they had resolved to collaborate on this issue in terms of information sharing on issues of crime cross border and transnational.
The Jamaican PM said “weapons was an enabler of violence, and finding out who financed such arms and were responsible for it entering Caribbean countries was important”. He added while he was careful not to share too much details on what they were doing, collaborating and sharing information will be able to have an impact, but from a political stand point, he said the region needed to amplify its voice on small arms into region, as the region does not make guns and ammunition and tackle the treasons as to why they were so widely available in its societies.
PM Holness noted that weapons were coming in both legal and illegally, and some coming in from boats arriving from South America and neighbouring Haiti.
But the one that concerned him most, was the entry through legal ports, which he says speaks to a high level of corruption that needed to be weeded out, as it had been an area where government puts most of its resources in securing through both its ports and customs system.
He notes recent moves by his government have included an integration of these two into its “Get the guns” campaign and the other strategies that they have.
As for the illegal entry, he says Jamaica has also taken steps to increase its surveillance and offshore patrolling, with recent success stemming the influx.
Its crime plan themed plan “Secure Jamaica” looks at all elements of national security, crime being one on the list, while PM Holness says he can report significant progress based on the action taken by his government.
He says part of it is paying attention to its cyber domain areas, main awareness of the economic zones in and around Jamaica and managing its borders, while the challenge remains managing enterprise crime, criminal gangs, whose sole purpose is to infiltrate state organisations and corrupt institutions, and use that power they gain to facilitate illegal trade is narcotics, coming in from the trade routes, south and central America, human trafficking, or uncustomed, fake and imitation goods, all of these are part of the enterprise crime and pay close attention to that.
As for domestic crimes involving violence against women and children, his government was looking to tackle it through specifically targeted campaigns. Meanwhile, Dr. Rowley says the recent statement by the US on arms and ammunition coming into the Caribbean did not come about on its own, but as a result of pressing the point to the United States as a supplier to most of the dangerous items, indicating to them, that national security remains the largest threat and challenge to both countries. The US has the capacity to follow up on who is doing what, and it was something they were cooperating on in getting the information needed.
Apart from the security MOU signed, both PMs spoke to trade between both island states with the latest approach on getting the Caribbean Single Market Economy, CSME to work effectively for member states.
Dr.Rowley says he expects the agreement laid at the recently concluded CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in Suriname, to make the way for the removal of non-tariff barriers. He spoke to the role this often plays in suppressing the effectiveness of the single market economy, and start to see the ‘peeling away’ of those things and see the market do what needs to be done.
Remarking on how he sees the CSME working, Holness says this was “only going to materialize when you not only have free movement of goods, but also free movement of labour and movement of capital that allows for a more efficient allocation of resources, it allows for the expansion of trade and opportunities and brings life and meaning to the business of regional integration”.
He added while “we often times want to see ourselves as competitors, that is healthy, that is natural. But there is another dimension, we also have to see ourselves as partners and that is also healthy and beneficial to all of us”.
Other areas of collaboration both Prime Ministers spoke about was the natural talents in terms of culture, sports, music, carnival and athletics and with both agreeing as areas they will collaborate much more closely.
On that note, he said an invitation to Trinidad and Tobago to participate in some of its sporting competitions in Jamaica was on the cards while it will be exploring ways in which Jamaica will benefit from the “incredible costume design industry here in Trinidad”.
Similarly to what was discussed with Guyana’s President, Dr.Irfaan Ali, when he visited Trinidad and Tobago just two weeks ago, the Jamaican PM said talks on “bi-laterally enhancing cooperation toward the process of business registration” was also brought up. He says “its an area that can really create an area of explosion in trade and commerce between the two countries, and there was absolutely no reason why a company registered in Trinidad and Tobago should not be noticed as registered in Jamaica and vice versa”.
PM Holness vowed that revision of the legislation when he returns home, will be slated on top of the agenda. While he mentions that a similar process already exists within CARICOM, and discussions are already in train, he says “Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica will perhaps be more aligned in terms of legislation that can move the process forward by enhancing and fast tracking that bit of cooperation”.
Dr.Rowley chiming in, added that he hoped Jamaican companies saw they were always welcomed to the T&T market, as “at the end of the day, what this does for CARICOM is create the largest possible market for a supplier, giving meaning to the tagline ‘stronger together’ in every possible way”.
The T&T Prime Minister shared that proof of this put to work was on display while CARICOM states represented at the Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles earlier this year, when they spoke out as a singular unit, with one voice.
The outcome he says has resulted in practical work now commissioned and noticed by the US president and vice president, bringing a spotlight also to CARICOM special issues such as finance, energy and food security.
Addressing an age-old call for a boycott against Trinidad and Tobago products on Jamaican shelves, PM Rowley says that has since been resolved and explained it had resulted from “bureaucratic obstructions to trade which he says were being mishandled”. He explained the background bit by sharing “the Jamaicans were annoyed that we were not responding to their complaints while a boycott was being organized, who incidentally included members of the opposition from Trinidad and Tobago. And so diffused it in the meeting realizing that it was not a political difference that was fueling this that it turned out to be”
Holness says since then “the posture and voice of CARICOM is changing for the better, there is a genuine recognition that freer and fairer trade helps out and allowing for the free movement of trade and capital, creates a synergistic environment and expands the bounty for everyone. Once you start to see above those, and realise that they really don’t create a long term sustainable economy, then you start to translate that into legislation and policy and the bureaucratic action, then you will start to see your economic growth take off”.
In the case of Trinidad and Jamaica six years ago, PM Holness says “the issues were not necessarily at the Prime Ministerial Cabinet Policy level, sometimes lie at the bureaucratic and administrative levels, having a greater understanding and building a partnership, can help to unlock some of the institutional barriers to trade, travel, commerce and finance. It is working and in a world of uncertainty and there is an exogenous shock, over which our economies have no control and have nothing to do with, we will need eachother more than ever, it is important there is strong relationship government to government regionally, to be able to withstand shocks”.
Prime Minister Holness will return to Jamaica on September 1st after partaking in celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago commemorating its 60th Independence anniversary. Both nations share the history of having attained independence from British rule in 1962.