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Busi­ness cham­bers are cau­tion­ing that the de­par­ture of two of the coun­try’s largest in­dus­tri­al play­ers—ANSA McAL and Trinidad Ce­ment Ltd (TCL)—from the T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA) re­flects deep­er frac­tures in na­tion­al pri­vate sec­tor rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

Greater Tu­na­puna Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (GT­CIC) pres­i­dent Ra­mon Gre­go­rio de­scribed the with­drawals as “a clear sign that long-stand­ing mech­a­nisms for ad­vo­ca­cy and con­sul­ta­tion are un­der re­al pres­sure.”

He not­ed that the con­cerns raised by the man­u­fac­tur­ers go be­yond in­ter­nal as­so­ci­a­tion mat­ters, touch­ing on wider is­sues of en­er­gy pric­ing, com­pet­i­tive­ness and the abil­i­ty of in­dus­try groups to in­flu­ence gov­ern­ment pol­i­cy.