Clint Chan Tack Monday, November 22 2004

TRADE and Industry Minister Ken Valley yesterday declared that Government had no intention of dropping its bid for Port-of-Spain to become the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Secretariat, just because there were concerns about crime in the city. Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) president Gregory Aboud recently suggested that TT should defer its FTAA bid until it could address the crime problem in Port-of-Spain. However Valley told Newsday that crime in Port-of-Spain was not a valid reason for Government to drop its bid to house the FTAA Secretariat in Port-of-Spain and there was “no issue to defer (that bid).” He explained that because TT was striving to be the headquarters of the FTAA Secretariat, “it helps us to focus issues in a particular way.”

Valley said issues such as crime and poverty within Port-of-Spain would be aggressively addressed knowing that the FTAA Secretariat would be located there. Valley said TT remains the front runner for the Secretariat with the support of 17 FTAA nations (Caricom-14, Peru, Venezuela and Costa Rica) while its closest rival Miami has a mere four votes. He disclosed that recently other nations have expressed their support for TT’s bid. Asked about the Dominican Republic’s support for Miami, Valley said this was due to the fact that nearly 80 percent of that nation’s trade is with the US and this was explained to him during his visit to that country last month. Valley said TT knew that the Dominican Republic was always backing Miami and he was not bothered by the fact that it was now a two-horse race for the Secretariat. He added that this made the competition more interesting.