Jamaica and Caricom

First and foremost I am a Jamaican national and a proud one I must admit, however I believe that we as a people have been let down badly by some of our own and by our politicians of both parties.

Look at the recent spat we have had with Trinidad regarding so called protectionist policies being used by that country to block the importation of Jamaica goods. Trinidad by all accounts seemed to have used an existing entry requirement for meat products which previously existed to say to Jamaica, we are not allowing our people to eat your meat unless you can demonstrate that it meets (no pun intended) our phytosanitary standard.

What is wrong with that, call it trade barrier if you will , but as far as I am concerned Trinidad has right to protect its national against any goods from any country in the world if it fails their standards.

What standards do we have in place to protect Jamaicans national from substandard goods from any country in the world including caricom?

Are these standards enforceable and are they being enforced?

If there are violations how they are handled and are the perpetrators (more like traitors) punished to the full extent of the law.

Why are the enforcement agents of Trinidad making sure that substandard goods, do not get into that country, while ours just say “ Carry-e –com”, that’s a question that our Trade Minister needs to answer instead of beating up Trinidad for wanting to protect its people.

If our politicians would spend just a year out of their 5 yr term, looking at trying to fix out problems, we would not be in the mess that we find ourselves right now.

Fix Jamaican problems and we need not worry about Trinidad or any other caricom nation, as once we get it right, it would be hard for them to not to seek us out as real partners.