Dr Mar­lene Attzs

In the Caribbean, we are no strangers to tradewinds–those pow­er­ful cur­rents that shape our is­lands’ des­tiny, both lit­er­al­ly and fig­u­ra­tive­ly. But be­yond the ge­o­graph­ic forces, there are gusty eco­nom­ic, geopo­lit­i­cal, and pol­i­cy trade tradewinds that de­mand our at­ten­tion. Right now, these tradewinds are blow­ing with an in­ten­si­ty that threat­ens the eco­nom­ic sur­vival of coun­tries such as ours.

With the T&T gen­er­al elec­tion bell hav­ing been rung, there will be po­lit­i­cal noise and ca­coph­o­ny drown­ing out ra­tio­nal dis­course. We must re­main fo­cused on the re­al is­sues.

The eco­nom­ic fu­ture of T&T, and in­deed the wider Caribbean, does not rest on par­ty man­i­festos or cheap po­lit­i­cal jabs–it hinges on our abil­i­ty to nav­i­gate the shift­ing glob­al land­scape. The world is chang­ing rapid­ly, and the lat­est de­vel­op­ments in US for­eign pol­i­cy and en­er­gy mar­kets are clear warn­ings that we need to ‘mind our busi­ness’ and pre­pare for eco­nom­ic head­winds.

The Shift­ing Sands of US For­eign Pol­i­cy

One of the most sig­nif­i­cant tradewinds af­fect­ing the Caribbean is US for­eign pol­i­cy–par­tic­u­lar­ly its stance on Venezuela. Since tak­ing of­fice on Jan­u­ary 20, 2025, the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion has wast­ed no time im­ple­ment­ing sweep­ing pol­i­cy changes that not on­ly im­pact the US econ­o­my but al­so have far-reach­ing con­se­quences for the rest of the world, in­clud­ing T&T.

It is be­wil­der­ing that some in the lo­cal po­lit­i­cal are­na are re­joic­ing over Pres­i­dent Trump’s re­cent de­ci­sion to re­voke US sanc­tions waivers, ef­fec­tive­ly halt­ing OFAC li­cences cru­cial to ad­vanc­ing the Drag­on gas deal be­tween T&T and Venezuela. But what ex­act­ly is there to cel­e­brate? This is not a po­lit­i­cal is­sue–it is an eco­nom­ic set­back. The can­cel­la­tion of these li­cences jeop­ar­dis­es T&T’s abil­i­ty to se­cure a crit­i­cal en­er­gy re­source at a time when do­mes­tic gas pro­duc­tion is dwin­dling, putting our eco­nom­ic fu­ture at risk.

Re­gard­less of po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion, the re­al­i­ty re­mains that with­out a sus­tain­able en­er­gy fu­ture, the en­tire coun­try will bear the con­se­quences. Cel­e­brat­ing this sig­nif­i­cant set­back of the Drag­on gas deal is not just short-sight­ed–it re­flects a reck­less and my­opic dis­re­gard for T&T’s long-term eco­nom­ic and so­cial sta­bil­i­ty.

Sus­pen­sion of For­eign Aid–A Re­al­i­ty Check for the Caribbean

An­oth­er press­ing is­sue is the sus­pen­sion of for­eign aid, in­clud­ing US­AID pro­grammes that have his­tor­i­cal­ly sup­port­ed eco­nom­ic and so­cial de­vel­op­ment in the Caribbean. With the Unit­ed States shift­ing its fo­cus in­ward and redi­rect­ing aid else­where, small is­land economies will have to fend for them­selves.

For years, Caribbean na­tions have re­lied on for­eign aid to fund crit­i­cal sec­tors such as dis­as­ter re­silience, agri­cul­ture, and small busi­ness de­vel­op­ment. But the winds are chang­ing, and the mes­sage from Wash­ing­ton is clear: the era of gen­er­ous US as­sis­tance is end­ing. This means that our Caribbean gov­ern­ments must be more strate­gic in how they man­age our lim­it­ed re­sources, at­tract in­vest­ment, and build self-suf­fi­cien­cy. We can no longer af­ford to be wait­ing for ex­ter­nal help that may be late or may nev­er come.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the US’s dis­en­gage­ment from glob­al cli­mate com­mit­ments weak­ens in­ter­na­tion­al ef­forts to com­bat these threats and lim­its fund­ing for much-need­ed re­silience-build­ing in the Caribbean. Our re­gion’s an­nu­al en­coun­ters with hur­ri­canes serve as a stark re­minder of our vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to cli­mate-re­lat­ed dis­as­ters.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the US’s with­draw­al from the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO) is an­oth­er re­minder of how dan­ger­ous it is for the Caribbean to re­ly on ex­ter­nal pow­ers for crit­i­cal health se­cu­ri­ty. The COVID-19 pan­dem­ic ex­posed the fragili­ty of re­gion­al health sys­tems, and with­out glob­al co­op­er­a­tion–bro­kered by the WHO–ac­cess to vac­cines and emer­gency fund­ing would have been even more dif­fi­cult.

Mind­ing T&T’s Busi­ness

In T&T, how­ev­er, the po­lit­i­cal dis­course con­tin­ues to be dom­i­nat­ed by dis­trac­tions. While the econ­o­my stag­nates, crime surges and en­er­gy rev­enues dwin­dle; much of the na­tion­al con­ver­sa­tion sad­ly re­volves around par­ty loy­al­ty, racial pol­i­tics, and per­son­al at­tacks.

We need to snap out of this cy­cle of triv­i­al­i­ty. The up­com­ing gen­er­al elec­tion should be about one thing and one thing on­ly–how do we fix T&T’s econ­o­my? How do we gen­er­ate new rev­enue streams in a world where tra­di­tion­al en­er­gy mar­kets are shift­ing? How do we en­sure that de­clin­ing nat­ur­al gas re­serves do not spell eco­nom­ic dis­as­ter for fu­ture gen­er­a­tions?

In­stead of fo­cus­ing on who can shout the loud­est or in­sult their op­po­nents most vi­cious­ly, po­lit­i­cal lead­ers need to present clear, tan­gi­ble plans for eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery. The elec­torate must and should de­mand re­al pol­i­cy dis­cus­sions, not the bac­cha­nal and pi­cong that now are the norm.

A Caribbean at the Cross­roads

T&T is not alone in fac­ing these tradewinds. The en­tire Caribbean re­gion stands at a cross­roads, and if ever there was a time for se­ri­ous lead­er­ship, it is now.

The choic­es made in the next few months–both by vot­ers in T&T and by pol­i­cy­mak­ers across the re­gion–will de­ter­mine whether we sink or swim in these tur­bu­lent wa­ters. Do we em­brace eco­nom­ic prag­ma­tism and in­no­va­tion, or do we con­tin­ue down a path of po­lit­i­cal trib­al­ism and stag­na­tion?

For T&, the an­swer should be clear. The eco­nom­ic sur­vival of our na­tion is at stake, and as the tradewinds of our times con­tin­ue to shift, we must en­sure that we are chart­ing a course to­ward sta­bil­i­ty, re­silience, and growth. Any­thing less would be detri­men­tal to us all.