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The Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce has reaf­firmed that its mem­bers re­gard Cari­com as a crit­i­cal eco­nom­ic part­ner, amid re­newed pub­lic scruti­ny of re­la­tions be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the re­gion­al bloc.

In a me­dia re­lease, the Cham­ber said Cari­com “re­mains an es­sen­tial source of growth, mar­ket di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion, and for­eign ex­change earn­ings” for lo­cal busi­ness­es across man­u­fac­tur­ing, ser­vices, and non-en­er­gy ex­ports.

It added that Trinidad and To­ba­go en­ter­pris­es have “deep and long­stand­ing com­mer­cial ties through­out the re­gion, in­clud­ing es­tab­lished cus­tomers, sup­ply chains, em­ploy­ees, and phys­i­cal in­vest­ments,” not­ing that Cari­com re­mains the coun­try’s sec­ond-largest trad­ing part­ner out­side of the Unit­ed States.