Is CARICOM beneficial to us?
Published:Friday | July 9, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
I never thought the day would come when I would say this, but I think Jamaica should get get out of CARICOM as everyone seems to benefit from it except our country.
I'm afraid Bustamante was right, Jamaica needs to look inward. Call me a protectionist or whatever, but I really think we should get out of it and improve our market share in the European Union, United States and Canada, etc.
As a nation that is energy deficient we can never compete with Trinidad and Tobago, which will continue to subsidise its industries and agriculture. They will win this trade war heating up with Jamaica because they have the natural resources to fight with. The fact that Jamaica is running a US$1-billion trade deficit with CARICOM, a good chunk of which is with Trinidad, means that we need to do something about this.
Another area I'd like to touch on is energy, we need to start thinking outside the box. Fossil fuels are not the only source of fuels; we need to explore solar and wind technology - we have so much sunshine and wind in Jamaica going to waste.
High overheads
I see some small hotels in Jamaica paying $700,000 in light bills every month! How do they stay in business? These hotels could invest in a simple windmill generator that would solve the problem for them.
Our love affair with expensive imported oil must come to an end, there are a lot of other alternatives.
On another topic regarding the controversy over the cadaver sniffer dogs that were temporarily brought into Jamaica and the fears that they may have rabies - recently I was in Jamaica and saw imported shrimp from Thailand on supermarket shelves. Has anyone from Jamaica been to Asia to see the virtual mud pits shrimp are farmed in? I'd say we may have much more than rabies to worry about.
I am, etc.,
BONYEKA KINDUELE
Allentown, Pennsylvania