Swaratsingh: PM–Trump meeting could shift T&T–US ties

Plan­ning, Eco­nom­ic Af­fairs and De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Kennedy Swarats­ingh says Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s meet­ing with Unit­ed States Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump at the Shield of the Amer­i­c­as Sum­mit could af­fect re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States.

Swarats­ingh said the meet­ing sig­nals a phase of co­op­er­a­tion in­volv­ing se­cu­ri­ty, en­er­gy and trade. He said the en­gage­ment could sup­port eco­nom­ic re­silience, na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty and the coun­try’s role in en­er­gy, trade and lo­gis­tics.

He said the sum­mit fo­cused on re­spons­es to or­gan­ised crime, mi­gra­tion and geopo­lit­i­cal com­pe­ti­tion in the hemi­sphere. He said pub­lic safe­ty and na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty are re­quire­ments for de­vel­op­ment, eco­nom­ic growth and in­vestor con­fi­dence.

He said in­vestor de­ci­sions in man­u­fac­tur­ing, en­er­gy and lo­gis­tics de­pend on is­sues in­volv­ing crime and sta­bil­i­ty. Ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter Swarats­ingh, co­op­er­a­tion on re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ner­ships can in­flu­ence in­vestor con­fi­dence and the coun­try’s stand­ing for for­eign di­rect in­vest­ment.

Min­is­ter Swarats­ingh said the sum­mit al­so in­clud­ed dis­cus­sions on en­er­gy mat­ters. Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar held talks with Unit­ed States of­fi­cials in­clud­ing the US Sec­re­tary of En­er­gy on is­sues in­volv­ing en­er­gy se­cu­ri­ty and op­por­tu­ni­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The Prime Min­is­ter al­so met with Unit­ed States trade and com­merce of­fi­cials dur­ing the sum­mit. The Unit­ed States is Trinidad and To­ba­go’s largest trad­ing part­ner.

Swarats­ingh said stronger ties could af­fect ex­ports of man­u­fac­tured goods, tourism from the Unit­ed States mar­ket and co­op­er­a­tion in dig­i­tal ser­vices and tech­nol­o­gy.

He said en­gage­ment with the Unit­ed States could al­so sup­port sec­tors in­clud­ing cre­ative in­dus­tries, busi­ness process out­sourc­ing, re­new­able en­er­gy and fi­nan­cial ser­vices.

He said the sum­mit and the Prime Min­is­ter’s meet­ing with Pres­i­dent Trump sig­nal the po­ten­tial for deep­er co­op­er­a­tion be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States.