Chambers call for clear communication on geopolitical issues from Govt

Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

Amid T&T’s role in cur­rent geopo­lit­i­cal is­sues and the re­cent US radar in­stal­la­tion in To­ba­go, the Cham­bers of the Greater Tu­na­puna, Greater San Fer­nan­do and Ch­agua­nas ar­eas have stressed that clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the State is need­ed to en­sure busi­ness and in­vest­ment re­main strong — and they have cit­ed con­cerns by some of their mem­bers and in­vest­ment col­leagues.

The re­ac­tions came yes­ter­day from busi­ness groups re­spond­ing to Guardian Me­dia ques­tions on the ef­fect on busi­ness and in­vest­ment from the var­i­ous geopo­lit­i­cal is­sues in the re­gion, US mil­i­tary ac­tiv­i­ty and T&T’s role, in­clud­ing the in­stal­la­tion by the US of a radar in To­ba­go.

The T&T Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce stat­ed that to date, it has not had any com­ments from mem­bers.

Greater Tu­na­puna Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce pres­i­dent Ra­mon Gre­go­rio said, “Feed­back from our lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners re­flects a bal­anced but cau­tious sen­ti­ment: many view the de­vel­op­ments as strength­en­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and af­firm­ing T&T’s strate­gic im­por­tance. Oth­ers have raised con­cerns about the per­cep­tion of height­ened re­gion­al ten­sions. To date, no in­vest­ment with­drawals or busi­ness dis­rup­tions have been re­port­ed, though stake­hold­ers are seek­ing clar­i­ty on the coun­try’s long-term se­cu­ri­ty pos­ture and diplo­mat­ic po­si­tion­ing.”

He added, “Our pri­or­i­ty is safe­guard­ing T&T’s rep­u­ta­tion as a sta­ble, neu­tral and de­pend­able part­ner for com­merce. In­vestors want con­fi­dence, not con­fu­sion. Clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the State at this time is es­sen­tial to en­sure that busi­ness sen­ti­ment re­mains strong go­ing in­to 2025 and 2026. The GT­CIC re­mains cau­tious­ly op­ti­mistic about the near-term busi­ness out­look and un­der­scores the need for trans­par­ent na­tion­al mes­sag­ing as we work col­lec­tive­ly to main­tain eco­nom­ic re­silience and pro­tect T&T’s long-stand­ing at­trac­tive­ness as an in­vest­ment des­ti­na­tion.”

Greater San Fer­nan­do Area Cham­ber of Com­merce (GS­FACC) pres­i­dent Ki­ran Singh said, “Some mem­bers have ex­pressed con­fi­dence that en­hanced se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly with the US, may strength­en na­tion­al and re­gion­al sta­bil­i­ty. Busi­ness­es in trade, lo­gis­tics, en­er­gy ser­vices, and man­u­fac­tur­ing have high­light­ed that a se­cure op­er­at­ing en­vi­ron­ment helps pro­tect sup­ply chains and can, in the long run, bol­ster in­vestor con­fi­dence.

“(But) ex­pres­sions of cau­tion re­gard­ing per­cep­tion and geopo­lit­i­cal sen­si­tiv­i­ties are ev­i­dent. Oth­er mem­bers raised con­cerns about how T&T’s promi­nent role in these de­vel­op­ments may in­flu­ence in­ter­na­tion­al per­cep­tions. Con­cerns re­volve around im­age and rep­u­ta­tion rather than im­me­di­ate op­er­a­tional risk. Sec­tors such as tourism, fi­nance and ser­vices are par­tic­u­lar­ly sen­si­tive to how geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions may be in­ter­pret­ed by in­vestors and over­seas clients. Many have em­pha­sised the need for clear, con­sis­tent com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the au­thor­i­ties — par­tic­u­lar­ly on de­vel­op­ments lo­cal­ly - to avoid mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion of T&T’s po­si­tion.”

Singh said most mem­bers have not re­port­ed any sig­nif­i­cant neg­a­tive im­pact at this time. “How­ev­er, when it comes to in­vest­ment—es­pe­cial­ly large or long-term projects—sev­er­al over­seas part­ners have in­di­cat­ed they’re mon­i­tor­ing these geopo­lit­i­cal de­vel­op­ments be­fore fi­nal­is­ing com­mit­ments for 2026. This re­flects pru­dent cau­tion rather than with­draw­al or re­luc­tance,” he said.

“We main­tain a cau­tious­ly op­ti­mistic out­look. Pre­vail­ing view among mem­bers is that T&T’s in­vest­ment im­age re­mains sta­ble, pro­vid­ed the Gov­ern­ment con­tin­ues trans­par­ent and con­sis­tent com­mu­ni­ca­tion, diplo­mat­ic chan­nels re­main ac­tive and bal­anced, and se­cu­ri­ty ini­tia­tives are clear­ly framed as pro­tec­tive and non-es­ca­la­to­ry. If these con­di­tions are met, T&T can sus­tain in­vestor con­fi­dence and main­tain a pos­i­tive busi­ness cli­mate in­to 2026 and be­yond.”

Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of Com­merce pres­i­dent Bal­dath Ma­haraj said, “This cham­ber has not­ed a cau­tious re­sponse from our mem­bers re­gard­ing T&T’s in­creased vis­i­bil­i­ty in re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty is­sues, in­clud­ing the pres­ence of US per­son­nel and To­ba­go radar in­stal­la­tion. No one is ex­press­ing blame or crit­i­cism to­ward the US or our Gov­ern­ment; in­stead, most are sim­ply seek­ing clar­i­ty to un­der­stand what these de­vel­op­ments mean for busi­ness and in­vestor con­fi­dence.”

He added, “A few over­seas part­ners have al­so re­quest­ed up­dates, not out of con­cern about T&T’s di­rec­tion, but to en­sure they can plan con­fi­dent­ly for trav­el, in­vest­ment and part­ner­ships. At the same time, sev­er­al mem­bers ac­knowl­edge that bet­ter se­cu­ri­ty co­op­er­a­tion with a trust­ed al­ly like the US will bring long-term ben­e­fits, in­clud­ing im­proved sur­veil­lance, safer bor­ders, and a more sta­ble en­vi­ron­ment for busi­ness op­er­a­tions.”

Ma­haraj said over­all, the sen­ti­ment is one of watch­ful re­as­sur­ance.

“Our in­vest­ment im­age re­mains strong, and with con­tin­ued clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion from the au­thor­i­ties, we be­lieve con­fi­dence will re­main steady head­ing in­to 2026.”

T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) pres­i­dent Dale Par­son said the as­so­ci­a­tion and the broad­er busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty have gen­er­al­ly not ex­pressed any sig­nif­i­cant con­cern or neg­a­tive ef­fects re­sult­ing from the US radar in­stal­la­tion.

“Feed­back from mem­bers, lo­cal part­ners and over­seas cus­tomers in­di­cates the radar in­stal­la­tion and as­so­ci­at­ed US mil­i­tary pres­ence haven’t ad­verse­ly im­pact­ed T&T’s in­vest­ment im­age or cur­rent busi­ness cli­mate,” he said.

“Busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ties, in­clud­ing those for Christ­mas and pro­ject­ed op­er­a­tions in­to 2026, con­tin­ue with­out wide­spread can­cel­la­tions or dis­rup­tions at­trib­uted to the radar or mil­i­tary in­volve­ment. The Prime Min­is­ter, Gov­ern­ment and busi­ness lead­ers have em­pha­sised the radar’s role in en­hanc­ing na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly im­prov­ing sur­veil­lance ca­pa­bil­i­ties against nar­co-traf­fick­ing—seen as sup­port­ive of main­tain­ing a se­cure busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment.

He added, “At this time, the radar is viewed more as a func­tion­al up­grade for T&T’s se­cu­ri­ty in­fra­struc­ture rather than a geopo­lit­i­cal risk fac­tor ad­verse­ly af­fect­ing trade or in­vest­ment.

“While there have been calls lo­cal­ly, es­pe­cial­ly from cer­tain To­ba­go of­fi­cials, for clear­er com­mu­ni­ca­tion about the radar’s pur­pose, these haven’t trans­lat­ed in­to broad busi­ness ap­pre­hen­sion.”

Con­fed­er­a­tion of Re­gion­al Busi­ness cham­bers pres­i­dent Vivek Char­ran said so far, there’s been no re­ceipt of di­rect neg­a­tive feed­back in­di­cat­ing busi­ness is be­ing di­rect­ly af­fect­ed by the cur­rent ten­sions.

“Where chal­lenges con­tin­ue would be the dis­tri­b­u­tion and sup­ply of US dol­lars to small/medi­um-sized and re­tail busi­ness­es, which has im­pact­ed im­ports that reached our shores this Christ­mas. One of the re­al prob­lems that’s af­fect­ed con­fi­dence is so­cial me­dia mis­in­for­ma­tion and in­ac­cu­ra­cies. Some - such as ‘car­go ships be­ing un­able to dock or turned back’ - is un­true and in­ac­cu­rate. Busi­ness­es con­tin­ue grap­pling with the ease of do­ing busi­ness, forex sup­ply/al­lo­ca­tion, peak time chal­lenges at the port and the low com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ty that has plagued us for many years.”