When the Patterson administration made the welcome decision to change the oath of allegiance with which Jamaica's government is sworn into office, from swearing allegiance to The Queen to swearing to Jamaica, its constitution and people, I dared to hope that it would have marked a renewed commitment by government to pursuing the interest of the people of Jamaica, over all else.

It should certainly have cemented an understanding that the Government of Jamaica's first duty was to Jamaica and that external obligations, whether to the Queen, the Commonwealth, the United Nations, or CARICOM, must always be practised in furtherance of the interest of the Jamaican people before all other considerations. But based on the actions of our governments in pursuing Jamaica's interests within CARICOM, the change of the oath has amounted to nothing more than words on a piece of paper.

While it is easy to recognise the fact that domestic policies must promote the interest of the people, the real test of a government's obligation to its people is in the manner in which it executes foreign policy and external trade. It is in this arena that governments are required to promote and defend their people's interests against the efforts of other governments bent on promoting the interests of their people. In these situations it is expected that our government will ensure that anything yielded to another government for its people, is at least matched by a commensurate gain for our people.

Foreign policy, as has been frequently stated, is merely an extension of domestic policy. This is particularly true of small countries like Jamaica, where economic prosperity is heavily dependent on foreign trade. In countries like ours, domestic economic policy can only be successful if complemented by beneficial trade policies; and trade policies cannot succeed unless they rest on the foundation of sound domestic economic policies.

It is also expected that even in this new world of globalised trade, countries should strengthen their competitive position in their domestic markets and also extend the boundaries of the domestic market through special trade agreements. In Jamaica's case, CARICOM was expected to be such a domestic-market-extending arrangement. But no one could believe this after seeing the state of Jamaica's trade with CARICOM today. Our trade with the region has moved from a surplus of US$25 million in 1982 to a deficit of US$1.6 billion in 2008. Today Jamaica can neither compete in our own market nor in CARICOM.

Educational books

School books bought by our government for Jamaican children are printed in Trinidad because our own printers are consistently outbidded. Jamaican factories are shuttered while our supermarket shelves groan under the weight of goods produced in other CARICOM factories. Skilled Jamaican workers slide into unemployment as their jobs slip away to workers in other CARICOM countries. No trade agreement which delivers these outcomes can be good for Jamaica, or be in the interest of the people of Jamaica.

Doubtless there are countries which benefit from trade in CARICOM. Jamaica is not one of them. Trinidadians, perhaps because of their Republican status, seem not to have ever suffered any confusion about whose interest should be served by their relationship with CARICOM. The strong reaction to my article of June 6, 'CARICOM: Killing us softly', coming from a variety of highly placed Trinidadian sources was therefore not surprising. After all, Trinidad has over US$1.5 billion of export income garnered from Jamaica to defend.

However, it is interesting that the arguments offered in rebuttal have only served to reinforce the fact that Jamaica, for whatever reason, is, at present, unable to compete in CARICOM and is therefore in no position to realise the benefits that CARICOM, with its market of over five million people, was intended to provide.

Additionally they acknowledge that the Trinidadian government provides subsidised energy to its manufacturers and to the Trinidadian economy as a whole. They also reveal that special incentives are given to Trinidad's manufacturers to enhance their competitiveness. They tell us that, among other things, Trinidad's manufacturers owe their success to "government incentives"

Not surprised

While I am not surprised that they have taken the position that their oil and gas belong to them and they are entitled to the advantages they bring, I am amazed that they would have chosen a Jamaican publication in which to express their strong anti-Jamaican views, with such vitriol and contempt for the Jamaican government and manufacturing sector. One can only assume they have been emboldened by the strength of their position in the Jamaican economy, having picked up the remains of large portions of the 'commanding heights' of our economy, crippled by the senseless economic policies of previous governments. Many of our largest firms and brands are now in their hands. Wray & Nephew and its internationally powerful brands, Caribbean Cement Company, Mutual Life, Jamaica Biscuit Company, and H D Hopwood are just a few outstanding examples. Several everyday products previously made in Jamaica now come to us from Trinidad.

While Trinidad's enormous advantage in energy cannot be disputed, there are those who would confuse the issue by suggesting that for light manufacturing, energy represents a relatively small portion of total cost. But any difference in cost could constitute the difference between success and failure in the marketplace. However, the real impact of high energy prices to a productive enterprise is in the cumulative cost of energy contained in the goods and services, including labour, sourced from elsewhere in the economy and transferred to its cost of production. Trinidad with subsidised energy throughout its economy is therefore at an extraordinary competitive advantage to Jamaica which enjoys no subsidy at all.

The energy issue is further confused by the suggestion that Jamaica ever expected Trinidad to bear the cost of liquefaction, transportation and re-gasification of natural gas in a Trinidad/Jamaica LNG deal. Jamaica's interest in Trinidadian natural gas was always predicated on the basis that the arrangements and the cost of moving the gas to Jamaica by whatever means, whether as LNG, CNG or by pipeline, would be Jamaica's responsibility. The real issue was that Jamaica believed that in the spirit of fair trade, Trinidad should sell the gas within CARICOM at the same prices paid by its own electricity producers.

I cannot speak for the Jamaican government, but gratuitous lectures by the Trinidadians, on Jamaica's energy options are quite unnecessary as our own technical experts are perfectly capable of making those determinations. What we need from Trinidad is not lectures but fairness and cooperation in the pricing of its energy sources within CARICOM, if it wants to continue to benefit from CARICOM protection for its US$1.5 billion of exports to Jamaica. Our market is ours.

In the 1980s when the shoe was on the other foot and Jamaica had a modest favourable trade balance with them, Trinidad's government did not hesitate to defend its producers by creating the notorious Negative Imports List and imposing an insidious import licensing regime under which no Jamaican product which posed a competitive threat to a Trinidadian equivalent product could enter their market. The arguments put forward by Trinidadian interests at the time, used the imagery of Trinidad being used as a 'dumping ground' for CARICOM products which were pouring into Trinidad as if through a funnel.

The same imagery is even more applicable to Jamaica's position in CARICOM today and the Jamaican government must now answer three very simple questions:

1) What does CARICOM trade cost Jamaica?

2) What does Jamaica gain from CARICOM trade?

3) If the cost is greater than the gain, what must we do to correct the imbalance?

In 2008, imports from CARICOM stood at US$1.7 billion, a full 20 per cent of our total imports. These imports enter the country free of duty under the rules of CARICOM and our government surrenders billions of dollars of revenue as a result.

The duty-free treatment of CARICOM imports deprives Jamaican companies of protection that might well have improved their competitiveness in the Jamaican market and made it possible to stay in production and keep their workers employed.

Extra regional products which might have been acquired at lower prices are excluded by the Common External Tariff which protects higher priced CARICOM imports. As a result, Jamaica spends tens of millions of US dollars to make CARICOM imports competitive in our market.

So Jamaica loses