THE UNC is making it clear that as it aspires to office on April 28, devaluing the TT dollar is not an option as claimed by Prime Minister Stuart Young.
From a PNM platform at Harris Promenade, San Fernando on April 2, Young said if the UNC wins the election, to facilitate its bag of election "poison" not goodies, they will have to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and subsequently devalue the dollar.
He read from a document titled the UNC National Economic Transformation Master Plan from 2020 to 2025, which he said is still on their website and which speaks to the devaluation.
“The minister of finance will work with the Central Bank to ensure the TT exchange rate is competitive, eliminating the currently dirty managed float and allowing market forces to operate,” he quoted.
“That is their plan to devalue, to depreciate, and to destroy our dollar,” Young said.
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UNC chairman Dave Tancoo rubbished the claim in a WhatsApp message to the Newsday.
“I can't explain Stuart's interpretation,” he said to his party’s plans to remove property tax, repeal the TTRA, and start public sector wage negotiations at 10 per cent.
“I can confirm that the UNC leader has repeatedly advised that devaluation was not an option we were considering.”
Tancoo said Young and his government must take responsibility for the state of the economy, the forex shortage and high cost of living even though the exchange rate remains steady at TT $6.80 to US$1.
“Stuart is a fraud. He has been in government for the last decade and the TT economy has collapsed with the lowest foreign change reserves since 2007.
“He went to negotiate with the US and one week after, we have a 10 per cent tariff on goods and services going to the US.
“This means that TT produced goods and services will be less competitive in the US. Obviously at higher prices, the US demand for our products will fall. Our manufacturing sector will be badly affected by substantially reduced sales and incomes.”
Underscoring that the US is TT’s largest trading partner, Tancoo said this means foreign exchange earnings will fall even further.
“This at a time when the net foreign reserves of TT is the lowest it has been since 2007. It means job loss in the manufacturing and services sector, when we have the worse youth unemployment levels in our recent past.”
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He asked, “Did Stuart Young know about this tariff when he met just a few days ago with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio?
“Did he know and choose not tell the population, or was he clueless and not know?”
He deduced, “Both are bad. You have a prime minister who returned boasting that he was engaged in critical negotiations with a senior US government representative, but official reports both nature of the discussions and the actions taken by the US government do not match with the fantasies and fairy tales being fed to the country.
“Fortunately, our citizens live in the real world and will remember the hardships imposed by Stuart and his gang from runaway crime to property tax and every other anti-business and anti-people actions of Stuart Young and his gang for the last 10 years.”
Claiming Young is panicking and searching UNC manifestos for plans to copy, Tancoo promised, “I will send him a copy of the UNC plans for 2025 and beyond to rescue TT, so he can sit and read when he loses government.”
