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EDITORIAL - Mr Obama should be careful in Syria

KINGSTON, Jamaica - Barack Obama, the American president, is a history buff who likes to bone up on the policies and strategies of his predecessors.
As he moves to concretise his decision to provide arms to Syrian rebels, Mr Obama should probably reflect on a country called Afghanistan, where he is now attempting to end a war involving the United States.
He should consider how the Afghan mess was created, beyond the proximate issue of Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorists, who the Americans went to dislodge after their 9/11 attacks on the United States (US).

JLP wants named of former opposition legislator cleared

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) says it still wants the name and reputation of its former parliamentarian, Joseph Hibbert, cleared even though he died of a massive heart attack over the weekend.
Hibbert, 65, an engineer, died at hospital. In 2009 he resigned as junior transport and works minister, less than a week after the British firm, Mabey and Johnson, pleaded guilty to bribing officials in Jamaica and other countries to win bridge-building contracts in the 1990s, while he was chief technical director at the ministry.

FATCA: Will it harm our economy?

KINGSTON, Jamaica - It now seems that our money is going to be controlled once more by external governments and their regulations. There will be instituted in our banking regulations a requirement for some additional information on clients' funds, and their source of funds, especially if they happen to be citizens of the USA, or simply green card holders. This is different to what is being required by the Jamaican central bank under the Prevention of Crimes Act (POCA), and will be instituted under FATCA, meaning the Foreign Exchange Tax Compliance Act.

Ja benefits from Carib Basin Act, Vasciannie tells US Int’l Trade Commission

KINGSTON, Jamaica - JAMAICA has benefited significantly from the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA), and more generally from the Caribbean Basin Initiative, Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States Stephen Vasciannie told a public hearing of the United States International Trade Commission in Washington, DC last Thursday.

Sugar losing grip on Europe

KINGSTON, Jamaica - It is quite possible that in less than a decade from now, raw Caribbean sugar will cease to enter the European market. If as seems likely this happens, it will bring to an end not just the preferential arrangements that Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar producers have enjoyed since 1975, but also a trade that for evil and good has played a central role in the making of the Caribbean and its ties with Europe.

No need for a trade war between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The state of the Jamaican economy and the increasing hostility to trade with Trinidad and Tobago by Jamaican manufacturers are matters that should concern all of the other 13 member countries of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). It may be that in some form of quiet diplomacy unknown to the publics of the 15-nation CARICOM, the secretary general of the CARICOM Secretariat is already engaged in behind-the-scenes activity to try to end the verbal slogging that has characterised the recent relations between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Yes to trade and aid: What of rule of law?

KINGSTON, Jamaica – CARIBBEAN Community (CARICOM) governments often reveal surprising reluctance to publicly respond to challenges relating to violations of fundamental human rights and the rule of law when, generally, the United States of America is involved.
This attitude was quite in evidence prior to and during meetings with US Vice-President Joseph Biden last month in Port of Spain, where virtual back-to-back meetings also took place with China's President Xi Linping.

‘Don’t even think about it’ - King warns against int’l debt default

KINGSTON, Jamaica - After a couple of highly successful debt-swap programmes in the last three years, two economists have warned that Jamaica should not even contemplate a similar move for its foreign obligations. Such a move, warned Dr Damien King, head of the Department of Economics at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, would have devastating consequences for the country on two fronts. The Portia Simpson Miller administration, which carried out the last debt exchange in February, has given no indication that a similar move is being considered for the country's foreign debt.

Multinational loans won’t stabilise dollar - IMF rep

KINGSTON, Jamaica - DR GENE LEON, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior resident representative to Jamaica, has branded as illusionary, the view that an inflow of hard currency from the multinationals will bring stability to the country's foreign exchange market. Leon, who was a guest at The Gleaner's Editors' Forum on Wednesday, said stability results from earning enough foreign exchange relative to demand for hard currency. "When you say the exchange rate is stable, the question is how.

Import duty hike will punish J’can consumers – economists

KINGSTON, Jamaica - A LEADING economist says Jamaicans would be punished with higher prices if the Jamaica Manufacturers' Association (JMA) is able to successfully lobby the Government to increase import duties to protect local markets. "You have to realise that the JMA sector and ... consuming Jamaicans have diametrically opposed interests. If the JMA gets its way, you pay more to live," Dr Damien King said at a Gleaner Editors' Forum on Wednesday.

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