The Taiwan fiasco

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Parent Category: Oct 2011

Category: Week ending Oct 29th, 2011

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The Grenada government will soon embark on round of discussions with stakeholders in the country to brief them on the Taiwan situation.

 A government spokesman told THE NEW TODAY newspaper that Minister of State with responsibility for Information, Senator Glen Noel has been given the green light to start putting the plans in place for a series of meetings with stakeholders such as the Grenada Chamber of Industry and Commerce (GCIC), Grenada Hotel & Tourism Association (GHTA), the Conference of Churches of Grenada (CCG) and the Grenada Trade Union Council (GTUC).

 Grenada is currently facing a threat to its financial and economic viability from the Republic of China on Taiwan, which is seeking to recover an estimated 76 million E.C dollars in unpaid loans from the island.

Armed with a court order from a judge in New York, lawyers for Taiwan are presently targeting cruise ships and airlines to pay over to them any monies owed to the Government of Grenada for deposit in a Taiwanese bank account in the United States.

 According to the spokesman, one cruise company, Princess Cruise Line Ltd has already notified the government of Grenada that it is feeling uneasy about the restraining order served on them by Taiwan.

 He said that Princess has sent a message to the Tillman Thomas-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government requesting that Grenada “agree that all government imposed taxes, fees and charges be paid to the Import-Export Bank of China”.

 He said that the cruise line has indicated that any failure on the part of Grenada to do so could see its ships “cancel all future calls to Grenada until this matter (with Taiwan) has settled”.

 “If similar restraining orders are issued to the other cruise lines calling at Grenada, we anticipate a similar request from those lines”, he added.

 According to the spokesman, the Congress government is mindful of the consequences to the island’s economy and in particular the Grenada Ports authority on the possible pullout of cruise lines.

 He spoke of a preliminary loss of some $EC3.3 million in revenue to the Port Authority if the cruise lines were to refuse to come to Grenada in the face of the Taiwan threat.

 During 1990 to 2000, Grenada contracted four loans from Taiwan through the Export-Import bank totaling US$28 million or EC$76 million.

 The first loan for $US10 million was for technical co-operation in July 1990 and the second for US$6 million in October 1997 for roads and to help build the first National Sporting Stadium at Queen’s Park in St. George’s.

The island took another loan of US$2 million from Taiwan in April 1997 for agricultural development and the final loan for US$10 million came in January 2000 to build the Ministerial Complex at the Botanical Gardens in St. George’s.

 When the Keith Mitchell-led New National Party (NNP) which contracted three of the loans decided to break ties with Taiwan in 2005 and recognise Mainland China instead, the Taiwanese requested repayment of all loans in full.

 With Grenada failing to make the payments, EXIM Bank decided to institute legal action against Grenada in New York and was successful as the NNP regime failed to put in a legal defense in the case.

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