Exploiting… forced labour oil?

Your Eyewitness hopes the US has finally settled on a tariff for Guyanese exports. First it was 38%; then 15% and now it’s graciously descended to 12.5%!! He almost expects the next announcement to be, “We’ve thought about it some more. Let’s spin the wheel again!!” The stated concern is “forced labour.” Interesting!! Cause the overwhelming share of our exports to stateside is crude oil from the Stabroek Block – produced by Exxon’s consortium!!
This leaves customs officials with the unenviable task of determining precisely where the forced labour is hiding!! Inside the pipeline? Naaah!! In the drilling mud?…Ooops!! Or perhaps the crude itself has been coerced into flowing upwards!!?? If forced labour has indeed produces our exports, it had to’ve been done so with extraordinary finesse!! To avoid detection by the very multinational corporations whose compliance departments employ enough lawyers to populate a medium-sized Caribbean island!!
There’s a delicious irony in all this. America’s the foremost champion of free markets, and it’s discovered a product extracted by one of its own corporate giants requires punitive treatment because of forced labour practices in the exporting country?? That’s rather like fining yourself for driving your own car!! Now, clearly, no one should trivialize genuine allegations of forced labour. If credible evidence exists anywhere in Guyana, it should be investigated vigorously and those responsible prosecuted without hesitation. Forced labour has no place in a modern democracy.
But trade policy is supposed to be a scalpel, not a 2-by-4!!. Unfortunately, Washington’s seems to’ve used the economic equivalent of a mosquito net to catch a whale. The real victim ain’t Exxon – they’re gonna continue selling oil somewhere. Removing refining business from America!! The folks most likely to feel the sting are ordinary Guyanese exporters – of timber products, seafood, agricultural produce etc – which neither own offshore platforms nor command fleets of oil tankers.
In punish alleged misconduct, Washington risks taxing enterprises that had nothing to do with it! The tariff justified by labour concerns falls most conspicuously upon exports dominated by an American oil company operating under agreements negotiated with the Guyanese state. It takes a special kind of bureaucratic legerdemain to conclude that the best way to discipline Guyana is to place a tariff on oil largely produced by one of America’s own corporate champions!!
At this rate, the tariff is beginning to resemble the stock market—except with less transparency and more press releases!! For now, Guyanese can take comfort in one thought. If Washington keeps revising the number often enough, eventually it may accidentally discover that arithmetic, like diplomacy, is easier when it starts with the facts – to be supplied by Guyana! – rather than the headline!!
Changing the percentage next week??!!

…regime change
What timing!! Just as Venezuela faces an earthquake bill of some US$19 billion, it finds itself staring longingly across the Caribbean Sea toward some $39 billion in oil proceeds sitting in U.S.-controlled financial institutions. It’s rather like watching a man die of thirst – while his wallet’s safely locked inside the bank vault – accessible only after the manager decides he’s learnt enough lessons about fiscal responsibility!!
Meanwhile Delcy’s discovering that anti-Guyanese speeches are poor substitutes for liquid assets!! Revanchist Essequibo slogans – stirring though they might be – can’t pay construction contractors, bridge engineers, or families whose homes have become geological experiments!!
Thankfully, Guyana understands that a nation can possess vast oil wealth – yet require international friends because someone they got the password!! The earth, unlike geopolitics, has no ideology. It simply shakes. Unfortunately for Venezuela, earthquakes do not pause to inquire whether your national treasury is under sanctions, frozen abroad, or awaiting diplomatic redemption!!
While we may not be susceptible to earthquakes, let’s not pull the tiger’s tail!!

…opportunities
Ian Mc Donald, who just passed, very positively exploited the vistas opened by his connection with Jock Campbell and Bookers in post-WWII Guyana.
A profound impact was made by his stocking of the Bookers’ community centers libraries!!