PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

Prime Minister Patrick Manning has warned that Trinidad and Tobago could 'pay in blood' if it fails to enter into an economic and political union with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

Addressing a special convention of the ruling People's National Movement (PNM) on Sunday, Manning said that the economic problems confronting the Eastern Caribbean pose a threat to the economic and well-being of his oil-rich twin-island republic.

"You want to come, the doors are open. We are not trying to mash up anything," Manning said in an apparent response to concerns expressed by Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding that the Trinidad-OECS union would pose problem for the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines have indicated their willingness to form and economic and political union by 2013. The move has been supported by the other members of the sub-regional organisation.

A special committee headed by former St Lucia prime minister Dr Vaughan Lewis and Trinidad diplomat Dr Cuthbert Joseph has submitted a report outlining the modalities for entering into the union.

Manning said the proposed union was open to all Caribbean countries, noting that economic blocs were being formed all across the world as countries seek to consolidate their future socio-economic development.

He said that the OECS countries met last week and agreed to sign on to the initiative stressing that Port-of-Spain had no desire to dominate the union.

"We don't have the resources to do that. We do not have the resources to dominate," he said, adding that Trinidad and Tobago could not take care of the debt of all these OECS countries.

"What we are after is a collaborative arrangement, economically and politically, that would redound to the benefit of all ... uplifting the standard of all countries of the region.

"Whether we in Trinidad and Tobago like it or not, we cannot stand idly by and watch the Caribbean in this economic situation and do nothing about it. We will pay in blood for taking such a position," he said.

Manning noted that the threats to Trinidad would include mass illegal migration of the people of the Eastern Caribbean states, an increase in drug activity and a decline in the Trinidad and Tobago manufacturing sector.

Reality

"So when we say we want to enter into an arrangement with the Eastern Caribbean, it is not to satisfy anybody's ego, my dear friends. It is a realisation that if we don't go it, we don't do it at our own peril," he said.

Manning said that Trinidad and Tobago exports TT$400 (US$66 million) annually to the Eastern Caribbean and that over the last few years, the local economy had grown significantly despite the global economic and financial crisis.

He told supporters when he had earlier referred to the economic downturn as a 'blip' it was by no means a 'slip of the lip' given now that the indicators were showing improvement, including the price of oil that was now selling around US$70 a barrel.

"I have been around for a long enough time to know what I am talking about. I have been through these situations before," he said.

Manning said while unemployment had risen to 5.6 per cent as a result of the economic downturn, it was still "far better than almost any other country in the Caribbean."

Manning told supporters that unemployment in St Vincent and the Grenadines was 18 per cent and in the bulk if the Eastern Caribbean between 15 and 20 per cent.