Trinidad and Tobago has blanked support for hurricane ravaged Dominica

Trinidad and Tobago has blanked support for hurricane ravaged Dominica that was seeking to get a waiver on its assessed quota contribution to the Organization of American States (OAS) for the 2018-2019 period.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Ambassador to the OAS, Anthony Phillip Spencer, said despite the “goodwill” expressed by the other delegations, his country would not support the waiver, adding that Port of Spain would instead consider supporting either the “deferral of payments of contributions by member states and where possible the implementation of a payment plan”.

Dominica is recovering from the destruction caused by the passage of Hurricane Maria on September 18 last year and the island had gone to the OAS meeting here last week urging member countries to approve of the waiver.

The island’s alternate representative to the hemispheric body, Judith-Anne Rolle, told the Special Meeting of the Permanent Council on March 23 that the post disaster assessment situation in Dominica undertaken in collaboration with a number of regional and international organisations, including the World Bank and the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) had painted a very dismal picture of the island.

She said the cost associated with the reconstruction of the country had been estimated at more than US$1.3 billion.

The diplomat said that every sector of the Dominican economy had been impacted by the hurricane, a category 5 storm with the greatest loss being recorded within the agricultural sector at 33 per cent, followed by the tourism sector at 19 per cent.