Browne: T&T lost opportunities with Venezuela

For­mer min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Fi­nance Mar­i­ano Browne be­lieves Trinidad and To­ba­go has lost op­por­tu­ni­ties to strength­en trade with Venezuela and must now fo­cus on for­mal­is­ing com­mer­cial ac­tiv­i­ty be­tween the two coun­tries.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day af­ter a post-bud­get pan­el dis­cus­sion host­ed by St Mary’s Col­lege Busi­ness De­part­ment and its Past Stu­dents’ Union, Browne point­ed to Venezuela’s pop­u­la­tion of about 30 mil­lion and its his­tor­i­cal role in sup­ply­ing food to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Venezuela is a mar­ket with 30 mil­lion peo­ple, and most peo­ple do not know that a lot of our food, not the turn of this cen­tu­ry, but in the pre­vi­ous cen­tu­ry, was sup­plied out of Venezuela,” he ex­plained.