Dennie Quill, Contributor
IN A WEEK when we learned of murders 'plummeting', we were simultaneously jolted by the news that the trade deficit had ballooned to US$2.5 billion. For sure, the fact that only 113 of our citizens were murdered in January is encouraging news. This sends a signal that more criminals are either in prison or dead. It could also mean that Reneto Adams is being taken seriously in light of his recent warning to criminals to go back from whence they came.
We should applaud the stronger reinforcement efforts of the police and pray that they continue to reap success. However, murders plunge? Murders plummet? I am afraid that to describe recent small gains in these terms is far too optimistic. Let's give Mr. Thomas and his men all the encouragement and cooperation necessary for his success in significantly reducing the homicide figures, as only then will people start feeling safe again.
The ultimate get-tough-about-crime punishment is the death penalty and one is not sure why our parliamentarians are so timid about dealing with this matter. Hopefully, our new Prime Minister will see this as a priority and get some action.
No one should be surprised that the trade deficit has widened, because we are fast becoming a nation of consumers rather than producers. Between January and October last year, we imported US$3.7 billion but we only managed to export US$1.2 billion in goods and services. One acknowledges that rising petroleum prices accounted for a large chunk of this figure, as well as payments to foreign investors. However, we cannot ignore the growing appetite for consumer goods, including motor vehicles, cellphones, plasma television sets, etc. I am no economist, but my little high school flirtation with the subject taught me that if each dollar of import is not matched by a dollar of export there will be a deficit and local goods suffer. But I ask you, where are the local goods?
BUSINESSES MOVED TO SISTER TERRITORIES
A long list of local manufacturers discouraged by high production costs, security concerns, high wage demands and trade union muscles have moved their businesses to sister CARICOM territories south of here. Some have even gone further afield as I learned this week about a company that had moved its operations to Madagascar - for real.
Truth is our exports are in trouble. For example, trade in agricultural products has fallen way behind. The European market is no longer safe. How long can we sustain this ballooning trade deficit? Could this have a disastrous effect on the weakening Jamaican dollar? Shouldn't someone, somewhere, be urging a change in policy to address the problem by reducing these deficits? What can we do to reverse this imbalance? Of course, in the current silly season when political plots are being uncovered almost daily, and as potential leaders go on the hustings, one doesn't expect stuff like the trade deficit to get any attention.
A colleague of mine believes she has found the solution to the problem. She used the recent staging of the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival as an example. She concluded that no one can throw a party like a Jamaican. The music, the food, the atmosphere - people from the Eastern Caribbean came here to get lessons! So she suggests that we forget about production and manufacturing and make Jamaica party central. We could stage grand parties every month of the year in all the parishes under appropriate themes and we would gain tremendous inflows from the thousands who would come to party.
But seriously, we need to find new exports in the area of culture and intellectual property, services and perhaps education, in order to realise growth in exports and reverse this dangerous trend.
Dennie Quill is a veteran journalist who may be reached at denniequill@hotmail.com.
