Young: Government assessing impact of ten per cent US tariff

THE prime minister has said while it is too early to give a proper assessment of how the US ten per cent tariff will affect Trinidad and Tobago’s exports, he believes there may be exemptions.

Stuart Young gave this comment during the post-cabinet press conference on April 3 at Whitehall, Port of Spain.

“We are in the process of assessing what this means. What I can tell the population is that from an initial information perspective, it does not appear to be a blanket tariff of ten per cent of all goods to the US. There are, it appears, certain exceptions. So we are currently studying that.”

Young said he has asked Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon to meet with US Government personnel in TT to get more information on the tariffs, how it will affect TT and possible exemptions.

On April 2, US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on most of the world – 180 countries, coining the day “Liberation Day” and saying it was America's economic independence day.

The European Union was hit with a 20 per cent tariff. Japan was given a 24 per cent tariff. Vietnam was hit with a 46 per cent tariff. The Falkland Islands, with a population of 3,662 and which exports products like non-filleted frozen fish, molluscs and fish fillets to the US, were slapped with a 42 per cent tariff.

Young suggested the tariffs may not have as significant an effect as first feared because of the fact that almost the entire world was hit with a similar ten per cent tariff.

“I saw our neighbours Guyana got 38 per cent and there are various staggering rates across the world.

“From a logical point of view the wide-ranging imposition, meaning many countries across the world, with some higher than others, it does not appear on the initial face of it that it makes us less competitive, because if everyone starts off with a baseline, it means everyone increases.”

Young reminded reporters of the conversation he had recently with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Jamaica on the tariffs they knew about at that time, including hefty tariffs on shipments from China.

“I had that opportunity to explain first hand to the decision-makers in the US government how this negatively affects not only TT, but the Caricom region.

“We have a Caricom heads meeting on April 11 and I am certain, if we don’t have a meeting before then, this whole topic will come up.”

He noted that while it is a country’s right to impose tariffs on goods it imports, the US is not the world’s only market.

“The US is one market...fortunately, our energy products find homes in many parts of the world, not only in the US.

“Being solution-oriented, one of the things I would immediately start looking at is where are there other places that our products could be placed."

Editor's Note: A tariff is a duty or tax imposed by the government of a country on imports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue, import duties can also be a form of financial burden on foreign products in order to encourage or safeguard domestic industry.