News
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Dominica warns against threats to banana industry
ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Dominica has launched a scathing attack on countries and companies seeking to destroy the local banana industry as the European Union launched an EC$54 million (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents) banana support package to help the island adjust to the new trading arrangements for bananas. “They are the ones who challenge us at the WTO…
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EDITORIAL – What, really, are agro-parks?
KINGSTON, Jamaica – Agro-parks must be good things. Roger Clarke, the agriculture minister, talks about them a lot. So, too, does Peter Phillips, the finance minister. Indeed, in these hard economic times, in which he is facing the strictures of the International Monetary Fund, Dr Phillips is allowing the agriculture minister to spend more than J$1 billion on these parks.…
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Jamaica, US to sign agreement on FATCA
KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaican Government and the United States (US) are expected to sign an agreement by July aimed at endorsing a new hegemony tax act called the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which requires local financial institutions to rat out US account holders. Concurrently, a government working group is seeking to get a number of institutions exempted…
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Post-IMF ‘hard work’ and challenges
KINGSTON, Jamaica – When Dr Peter Phillips announced the approval of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal as he wrapped up the annual Budget Debate last week, many in the House and across the nation were happy – the ecstasy had waned by then. Dr Phillips, who earned respect by the way he handled the negotiating process, must be congratulated…
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Grenada and Trinidad agree on a number of areas of cooperation
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Grenada’s Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell is returning home Friday after holding talks with his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart, Kamla Persad Bissessar on further improving trading and other relations between the two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries. A joint statement issued late Thursday night following their discussions noted that Trinidad and Tobago is Grenada’s largest…
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PM Anthony challenges CARICOM senior public officers
CASTRIES, St. Lucia CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony has challenged Cabinet secretaries and heads of the Public Services in the Commonwealth Caribbean to set examples in their professional lives so others in the service may be inspired and motivated. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the “Commonwealth Caribbean Cabinet Secretaries and Heads of Public Service Consultative Meeting” in…
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PM opts out of regional airline talks
KINGSTOWN—The shareholder governments of regional airline, LIAT, will meet in Barbados today, but a planned meeting in Bridgetown with T&T’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar will not materialise, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has said. He told a news conference his T&T counterpart was unable to attend the meeting because Parliament would be meeting on the same day. Gonsalves, who…
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The competitive imperative
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – There is an obvious irony in the hemispheric choice of Trinidad and Tobago as the venue for the eighth Americas Competitiveness Forum in October 2014. The most recent World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report moved T&T from 86 out of 133 countries in 2010, to 81 out of 142 countries in 2012. On the Global…
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