Introduction

• Author: Bhoendradatt Tewari/Roger Hosein
• Pages: 7-10

vii

Introduction

This book begins with a thirty-two (32) page chapter on the experience

of oil booms in Trinidad and Tobago, a small but oil and natural gas rich

English-speaking country located seven miles north of Venezuela. The

article captures the facts: what was the objective condition of Trinidad

and Tobago during these booms? What kinds of choices were made

about industrialization and development? How did oil and prospects for

the petroleum sector, feature in this? What is the macroeconomic effect

of an oil boom on a small economy? How does it affect non-oil

industrialization, diversification and the prospect for manufacturing

exports? What were the positive and negative impacts of choices made

during the oil boom? How valuable was intervention by the IMF and

other multi-laterals? Are there any lessons to be learnt? What are the

chances of these lessons being incorporated into public policy the next

time around? This last issue is taken up again in chapter six.

The second chapter assesses the impact of Arthur Lewis and Lloyd

Best on development strategy in Trinidad and Tobago and concludes that

both have had influence but in different ways. In many quarters, this

would be regarded as an unexpected conclusion given that Arthur Lewis

and Lloyd Best are often presented as being antithetical to one another in

their approach to development strategy. Close examination of the works

of both economists and the discovery of points of convergence gives this

chapter a unique and original perspective. The chapter is also original in

its examination of economic theory on public policy in a small open

economy and it shows how Trinidad and Tobago, while sceptical about

foreign direct investment, harnessed FDI initially in order to grow and

develop the economy and subsequently to diversify the economic

production base of the country.

If chapter one focuses on Trinidad and Tobago’s management of

natural resource revenues and chapter two on that country’s approach to

foreign direct investment, chapter three looks at trade within CARICOM

and trade from CARICOM to the rest of the world in an age of

globalization and reciprocal free trade and makes it clear, that

preferential access has not so far worked in favour of CARICOM neither

in terms of diversification of production nor in terms of trade expansion

and that, given such an historical record, it would in fact be a

meaningless option to pursue in an age of reciprocal access to markets

and in a climate of growing and intensifying competitiveness. It argues

that a better option would be an “open regionalism” approach which

would facilitate a more rapid integration into the global economy.