PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

While deal­ing with the po­ten­tial threat of the coro­n­avirus from a health per­spec­tive re­mains the main pri­or­i­ty, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley is con­cerned about the po­ten­tial fi­nan­cial fall­out should the virus linger longer than ex­pect­ed.

“We are a na­tion that has a very sig­nif­i­cant re­liance on the ex­ter­nal mar­kets and the ex­ter­nal econ­o­my,” said the Prime Min­is­ter, who said while cer­tain pro­to­cols have been put in place as safe­guards should the coro­n­avirus ar­rive in T&T, he con­tin­ued to look at the im­pact the virus had on neigh­bour­ing economies which could af­fect our own.

“There are some big­ger is­sues here for us. As we look at the ef­fect that this threat of the virus is hav­ing on the in­ter­na­tion­al trad­ing com­mu­ni­ty, we in Trinidad and To­ba­go have se­ri­ous ex­po­sure,” Dr Row­ley said at yes­ter­day’s post-Cab­i­net press brief­ing.

“For ex­am­ple, we’ve seen the record col­lapse of the stock ex­change. Don’t think we are not in­volved in that. The per­for­mance of our Her­itage Fund is di­rect­ly im­pact­ed by the per­for­mance of the stock ex­change be­cause that is where that in­vest­ment large­ly lies. If the stock ex­change is do­ing well then our earn­ings are do­ing well. If the ex­change is do­ing bad­ly for what­ev­er rea­son, then we have con­cerns there.”

Row­ley, who ad­dressed the press brief­ing be­fore leav­ing to at­tend a fu­ner­al in his con­stituen­cy, said the virus could hin­der T&T trade and man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tors.

“We al­so are trad­ing in prod­ucts for which the de­mand is of in­ter­est to us be­cause if the de­mand is not there then the prices of those prod­ucts that we trade in would fall,” he said.

Some con­cern was al­so at­tached to the per­for­mance of the en­er­gy sec­tor.

“Yes­ter­day I was look­ing at the per­for­mance in the gas and oil sec­tor and there are some se­ri­ous de­vel­op­ments there large­ly dri­ven by con­cerns that the Chi­nese econ­o­my may not be as ro­bust as it was pre­dict­ed to be,” Row­ley said.

While he is hope­ful the coun­try can avoid any cas­es of the virus com­ing to our shores, he said giv­en the wide di­as­po­ra this coun­try has world­wide, there is the pos­si­bil­i­ty that re­turn­ing na­tion­als will come from af­fect­ed coun­tries.

“Giv­en the con­nec­tions that we have and the busi­ness­es that we do around the world, it is quite like­ly that some­where along the way we could be ex­posed to per­sons who are in­fect­ed be­ing in our bor­der or com­ing to us as na­tion­als who have every right to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“We can­not de­ny ac­cess to na­tion­als of Trinidad and To­ba­go if they choose to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go and we have cer­tain pro­to­cols in place.”