KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) — Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says St Vincent and the Grenadines could become a haven for criminals from Caribbean countries, particularly Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana, if the tariffs imposed by the United States (US) become “a real challenge” to the region.

United States President Donald Trump has suspended for 90 days most of the tariffs that his administration has levied on countries across the globe.

Most of the Caribbean countries have been slapped with a 10 per cent base tariff while Washington is imposing a 38 per cent tariff on US imports from Georgetown.

Gonsalves told Parliament that while the matter has not come up for discussion yet, the tariffs could create problems for national security.

“Let’s take Trinidad and Tobago. Let’s say the tariffs hit them harder because they export far more,” he said, noting that in 2024, the oil rich twin island republic exported US$2.7 billion worth of goods to the United States.

Gonsalves also noted the decision of the United States to revoke the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) licence that had been granted to Trinidad and Tobago to allow Shell, the National Gas Company (NGC) and contractors to explore, produce and export natural gas from the Venezuelan Dragon Gas Field.

Gonsalves told legislators that the issue was among the concerns before the Trinidad and Tobago electorate during Monday’s general election as they decided “who is best able to take us out of this jam”.

The Kamla Persad Bissessar-led United National Congress (UNC) coalition won the election, defeating the incumbent People’s National Movement (PNM).

“And I tell you this, if there’s a real challenge there, we can find the knock-on effect of more people leaving Trinidad, more criminals, that Trinidad and Tobago can become a security problem for St Vincent and the Grenadines, more than it is at the moment,” said Gonsalves, who is also the minister of national security.

“We know that we talk about shooters come up on hire and all the rest of it, and we know the problems with guns and bullets from the US. That’s a major problem. So, there’s a security dimension we have to look at.”

Gonsalves showed lawmakers a paper from the Trinidad-based Caribbean Community (Caricom) Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (Caricom IMPACS) titled “Potential Implications of US Protectionist Tariffs”.

“It’s a five-page paper. I just got it. Now, what we have to do is to do what we’re trying with our fundamentals,” he said, adding that St Vincent and the Grenadines has to grow more food and do so more effectively and efficiently.

“And, certainly, on the security front, for us to be even more vigilant.”

Regarding Washington’s decision to impose the 38 per cent tariff on Guyanese goods, Gonsalves said, “the way they did it mathematically, they take the difference between imports and exports, the value, and they divide it by two”.

“Guyana, of course, is content in that, if you do that math, the real number is more like 11 to 12 per cent tariff, not the 38 per cent. But if that stays again, we have challenges down there, which could hit back on our security,’ he said, adding that there are many dimensions to the impact of the tariffs.

“But you can’t make up your mind completely about all the things specifically on the tariff, but you just ramp up the good things which you know you have to do in any event without the tariffs,” Gonsalves said.

“The problem is not so much for the economy as a whole, the 10 per cent tariff on the exports, but it’s on the imports and the currency and the security questions which would follow, and so on and so forth,” he told legislators.