The Minister of Finance, Investment and Trade’s response to questions I posed to him during the sitting of the last House of Assembly confirms my belief that our Country does not have a sound trade policy in place.
Based on my observation, it appears that our three major trading partners are The United States, The Bahamas and Panama. We import most of our goods from The United States, our fuel from The Bahamas and Panama supplies many of our larger retail stores with their resale products. Therefore, I must question the wisdom of using public funds to embark on a trade mission to a Country, according to the Minister, with which we do the least amount of trade.
Prioritizing where we direct our trade and investment efforts is imperative as the Government claims that there are minimum funds available. As the government tries to increase its revenue, it must abandon its strategy of taxation and really begin to focus on those elements that drive our economy.
Inward investment is only one of them – trade, manufacturing, relief and incentive packages for small businesses must become a part of the strategy. Therefore, I am calling on the Government to hasten its trade policy and its manufacturing policy. Also, a number of relief and incentive packages for small businesses should be created and rolled out before the end of the year.
