PM heads to Washington, DC, on Tuesday

Days after returning from a series of meetings with energy executives in Europe, the Prime Minister is expected to leave Trinidad and Tobago again on Tuesday to attend another series of meetings with US congressmen in Washington, DC.

Dr Rowley announced that he would be travelling to the US during a media conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's, on Monday, saying the meetings would address matters of energy security, finance and agriculture.

He said the meetings on finance would continue discussions which began when he led a Caricom team to the US in 2019 to discuss Caribbean banks being cut off from international banks.

He stressed such discussions were important to ensure there was correspondent banking between regional financial institutions and global banking systems.

"If we don't have corresponding banking, it means that you can't put a cheque in a bank here and have it cleared by another bank abroad and so on, so that was very, very serious for us in Caricom.

"There are hearings on Wednesday morning led by congresswoman Maxine Walters and her committee on financing to treat with this matter, which Caricom had raised in 2019, which had been a major item.

"We finally got where we want to be, which is to be heard by banks in front of the US Congress, so I am going up there for that.

"That delegation is being led by Prime Minister of Barbados (Mia) Mottley, who is the co-chair on the finance side, But the Caricom would have a very significant presence while these hearings go on.

"That's on Wednesday, and on Thursday there is the energy meeting."

Rowley said he intended to return to Trinidad over the weekend, but he also planned to visit his youngest granddaughter in New York.

He announced the birth of the baby on his official Facebook account on Independence Day.