Gaston Browne: Caricom major trade partner with Trinidad and Tobago

ANTIGUA and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said assertions by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar that Caricom is an unreliable partner to TT are difficult to reconcile with the economic record, as TT earned over a billion dollars US from Caricom in 2024 alone.

He was responding to remarks by the Prime Minister where she called Caricom a “unreliable partner” and a “dysfunctional and self-destructive” organisation.

In a statement on December 21, Browne said, “TT earned more than US$1.1 billion ($7.5 billion) in foreign exchange from trade with Caricom, comprising approximately US$784.7 million ($5.3 billion) in domestic exports and US$501.3 million ($3.4 billion) in re-exports to Caricom states. Caricom was TT’s second-largest export market, exceeded only by the US.