By ANDRE BAGOO Sunday, March 16 2008

GOVERNMENT is in the final stages of preparing a nationwide “plan of action” to tackle rising food prices which could be presented to Parliament within three weeks, Peter Taylor, the Minister of Legal Affairs, confirmed yesterday.

“Given the onslaught of rising food prices, we now have to set a clear agenda as to a sustained approach to dealing with the issue,” Taylor said yesterday, moments after a People’s National Movement General Council meeting at Balisier House, Port-of-Spain.

Taylor said a “plan of action as to how to tackle food prices” was being prepared in conjunction with Arnold Piggott, the Minister of Agriculture, as well as a prices and inflation committee.

“This will be an inter-ministerial effort,” Taylor said.

Speaking at a press briefing at Balisier House yesterday, John Donaldson, the PNM Vice-Chairman, said Taylor will make a presentation to Parliament and “the nation...within three weeks” on the issue of rising food prices.

Donaldson also announced that the PNM’s Annual Convention, which had been scheduled for June 6 and 7, is now re-scheduled for June 28 to 29. The convention will see all posts come up for election, except that of political leader, chairman, vice-chairman and secretary, which come up for election every five years. Donaldson said the reason for the shift was the party’s “crowded” schedule as well as the need to deal with “certain bookkeeping” issues. Donaldson also said there were more than 1,000 new members to the PNM between January and February of this year.

In addition to food prices, the issue of crime in this country was also discussed at the Council, especially crime on the south coast of the country.

Donaldson said the southern coast seems to be “the entry point of illegal activities in Trinidad and Tobago.” He said Martin Joseph, the Security Minister, had assured that the “technical assets” in place in that part of the country were nonetheless functioning properly.

“Its very close to the sources of the problems we have in the country,” Donaldson said, referring to human, drug and firearms trafficking activities which take place along the southern coast.

However, he added that Government needed more resources to deal with the issue of crime. “We must have the proper resources for interdiction,” he said.

Donaldson warned that the crime problem in Trinidad and Tobago might spread to our Caribbean neighbours.

“What has been observed is that there seems to be an attempt to re-direct this traffic away from Trinidad and Tobago to other neighbouring countries,” he claimed, and warned that crime, wherever it happens, will nonetheless affect our society. “Wherever this happens it will affect all of us in the Caribbean.”