No quicker Tobago fish, says Wickham

A new government in Trinidad and Tobago doesn’t necessarily translate into a quick fisheries agreement or a flood of oil dollars for Barbados, says pollster and political scientist Peter Wickham.According to Wickham, the very elusive fishing pact may still not be a hot priority on Port-of-Spain’s agenda.And when it comes to overseas aid and investment, new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is also likely to be very careful about spending that oil wealth, given the demands being made by her people, he told the SUNDAY SUN.“I don’t think that the election of Kamla will make a difference to Barbados’ relations with Trinidad, to be perfectly honest,” he said.“I don’t think it will speed up or slow down the fishing agreement because the fishing agreement is a reflection of Trinidad and Tobago’s national priorities and not a particular party perspective.“So I would say I don’t expect there to be any difference in terms of the speed at which things will move because ultimately Trinidad’s national interest does not change; it’s just that the leader has changed.”Barbados has been engaged in formal negotiations with Trinidad and Tobago since March, 2002, in an effort to arrive at a mutually satisfactory bilateral fishing agreement to replace the previous one-year agreement which expired in 1991. Over the years there have been several rounds of negotiations and though both sides reported making considerable progress, no agreement has materialised – to the chagrin of Barbadians who hunt flying fish in the waters off Tobago.National prioritiesBut Wickham said he did not think that the negotiations were being slowed up by the leadership in Port-of-Spain. “They were more being slowed up by the fact that Trinidad and Tobago’s national priorities do not necessarily coincide with Barbados’,” he pointed out.Still, he suggested that Barbados continue to push for the fisheries pact.“We should continue business as usual and we should give them [the new government] a chance to settle, and then we go back to the negotiating table,” he said.“I do believe that the technocrats that are advising them will be the same people. So my feeling is that we should approach the new government the same way we approached previous administrations.“We should push ahead with the fisheries talks with the understanding that we are going to be no more or less successful now.”Ambassador to CARICOM Denis Kellman said it was too early to determine what would be the new government’s perspective on the exploitation of the fisheries resources.But he said Barbados would want an early meeting with the new administration to discuss co-operation in a range of areas. He told the SUNDAY SUN that last week’s change of government might be a good starting point for CARICOM countries to try to finalise a regional fisheries agreement.Kellman said it was time CARICOM governments sought to conclude a region-wide agreement, looking to access each other’s water, rather than focus on a bilateral pact with its inherent limitations.And even though “it’s early days yet”, there’s a chance that Persad-Bissessar may warm to the idea, said Kellman.“The fact that she is a new head of government may be a good thing,” he remarked. “She may have a new perspective. She may see things differently from . . . Patrick Manning and his government . .  . . ”The ambassador said that whatever fishing deal was worked out needed to be “very comprehensive” and to embrace the wider Caribbean, offering an array of access to fishing grounds.Apart from its fisheries, Trinidad and Tobago’s oil wealth and its investment potential are among the big attractions.However, Wickham said that he did not expect Persad-Bissessar to be looking to bankroll major regional projects in a hurry.“She needs to be careful because people are expecting that she will fix a lot of major issues at home,” he said. “So I don’t see her viewing that spreading of the oil wealth in the Caribbean as a priority.”Wickham said he did not expect the new government to come up with the “fanciful” projects outgoing Prime Minister Manning floated, like his much-talked about oil pipeline to Barbados.Instead, Barbados and other CARICOM countries are likely to get some “straight” and very realistic talk from the new prime minister about the twin-island state’s financing possibilities in the region, according to Wickham.Meantime, former Barbados High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago Frank da Silva has called for an early meeting of senior officials from both sides to discuss co-operation. He said this meeting should look at tourism, manufacturing, agriculture, diplomatic representation and culture.He suggested the two nations examine “a new [cultural] festival that could showcase the richness of the Caribbean, staged initially by our two countries, but encouraging people from all over the world to taste and experience each Caribbean country and return to the one that appeals to them the most”.