He said the balance of trade favours Trinidad and Tobago so much so that the numbers are astronomical.

Rohee said he raised this concern during a bilateral meeting with former Trinidad and Tobago Trade Minister, Mr. Ken Valley, during the special meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) which he attended in Trinidad and Tobago last week.

He said that in his meeting with Valley, they reviewed trade relations between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago bearing in mind that for sometime now, there has been in place a mechanism that was established to treat decisively with these matters.

But due to the exigencies of the current political situation in Trinidad and Tobago with elections being held twice in less than one year, these matters could not move forward, he noted.

He told a news conference at his office in Georgetown that they nevertheless looked at "trade irritants or irritants to trade" between the two countries.

"We identified some of the technical barriers to trade between our two countries...some of them dealing with standards and so on and we looked at some strategic areas for investment by Trinidadian investors in Guyana because I had raised the concern that Guyana cannot only be buying goods and services from Trinidad and Tobago," Rohee said.

According to him, Guyana cannot continue to be "a net importer of goods and services from Trinidad because right now if we look at the balance of trade between Guyana and all the CARICOM countries...our balance of trade with Trinidad and Tobago is very much in favour of Trinidad".

"In other words, they are exporting more to us than we are exporting to them; we are importing more from them than we are exporting to them. The numbers are astronomical and obviously this is not a healthy trade relation since you cannot have that kind of asymmetry in trade relations between countries," he asserted.

"I believe there should be some balance and I warned that Trinidad and Tobago cannot only focus on selling goods to countries. They have to look at the question of investments also because a time may very well come when consumers in these countries (would not) have the necessary wherewithal to purchase goods and services from Trinidad and then they will be left with what is called an over-production of goods in that country".

In this regard, he urged that Trinidad and Tobago start looking at investing in countries that have the requisite natural resources and where it can utilise economies of scale to improve production and trade between the countries in the region.

"This is the only way we would have a healthy trade situation in CARICOM," Rohee told reporters.

According to him, these discussions are to continue, since Trinidad and Tobago is currently caught up in electoral politics preparing for general elections next month and "many of these issues will fall victim of that process".