By Jarrel De Matas

Copyright trinidadexpress

When it comes to things that seem to recur indefinitely with no probable end in sight, there are few things that can rival the Indian expo or traffic at the Price Plaza roundabout in Chaguanas. Add our ongoing foreign exchange crisis to that list. If the increasing reduction on available US dollars and monthly spending -limits for USD transactions imposed by banks nationwide wasn’t an indication of a worsening crisis, we now have -insight to a monopolistic dominance of forex recipients.

Data from EximBank (Export-Import Bank of Trinidad and Tobago) reveals that from 2020 to mid-2025, 123 companies accessed US$1.4 billion through EximBank’s “essential” window. Pharmaceutical and poultry were the largest to benefit from this window, with a single pharma distributor alone taking in more than TT$700 million (US$100 million).

PM Persad-Bissessar, in what is becoming a typical PR move, launched a blistering critique—this time of the banking system. She accused commercial banks of running “forex cartels” that strangle small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Promises were also typically made—this time that her Government would create legislation to make the Central Bank disclose all allocations. Transparency, she argued, will reveal who benefits and who suffers in the current arrangement.

Transparency is necessary, yes. But transparency alone will not solve the crisis. Even if every citizen had a complete Excel spreadsheet of forex allocations, the core problem would remain: our economy is dangerously dependent on imports. Another problem would also remain: I am about as capable of using an Excel spreadsheet as a government office is of answering a phone call. But, one problem at a time.

When it comes to our forex problem, we simply spend too much, hundreds of millions of US dollars, each year importing items that we could, at least partially, produce ourselves. We might be able to legislate our way to more transparency, but we cannot legislate our way out of dependency. The only real solution is to reduce our need for imports. That means -investing in local self-sufficiency.

Regarding pharma production, Barbados and Guyana are leading the way in the English-speaking Caribbean. Both countries signed a joint declaration with Lithuania in February 2025 under the EU’s PharmaNext programme. The programme carries an initial 8.9 million-euro investment in local pharma production which includes bringing regulators in the Caribbean to World Health Organisation (WHO) Level 3 maturity. The WHO Level 3 benchmark indicates a stable and well-functioning regulatory system. Countries with this level are considered capable of overseeing the entire life cycle of pharmaceutical production, including clinical trials, market authorisation, and continuous auditing and licensing of distributors. Instead of forever importing every pill and cough syrup, we need to establish similar partnerships.

It would be worthwhile to at least send an e-mail to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hope that he is doing well, but more importantly to check in about his state visit which cost us approximately $1 million. India is regarded as the “pharmacy to the world” due to their global supply of generic medicines. Before Modi collected our highest national award, was anything in the dozens of MOUs bearing his signature related to helping us build pharma production capacity?

While we wait for those MOUs to hatch, the poultry import bill is also straining our forex (yes, I just made a chicken pun). Our local chickens either have a sophisticated palate for imported feed and other poultry products, or we simply aren’t innovative enough with finding alternatives. Cassava and corn grown locally can reduce our poultry import bill. Yams can also be used as chicken feed, and it just so happens that we received a donation of 10,000 yam seeds from Ghana—the standout accomplishment of Dr Rowley’s partnership with the West African country. Despite the viable alternatives to imported chicken feed, much like our own preference for KFC over a home-cooked meal, we seem addicted to the convenience and international branding of the imported option even when it costs more. Well, the chickens have come home to roost. Our current poultry bill is unsustainable in an economy bearing the weight of diminishing forex flows.

Pursuing pharma production partnerships and poultry feed alternatives will not eliminate forex demand. Even with the Colm Imbert signature suite of taxes, Amazon is still the go-to shopping option for those who have access to that “luxury”. Local pharma manufacturing requires high regulatory standards which make it an unrealistic endeavour in the short term. And some poultry processing machinery and parts are simply not manufactured locally.

These hurdles are not excuses for inaction. They are reminders that building self-sufficiency is a long-term project that requires political will and significant investment. The alternative is worse: endless cycles of forex scarcity and a slow death of SMEs. Dependence breeds vulnerability. The latest data from EximBank about forex allocations to a select few companies is only the latest to expose how fragile our economy is.

Legislation that forces transparency at the Central Bank would be a useful start. But it would only shine a light on a broken system. The deeper work must be about overhauling how we use forex and how we can reduce our reliance on it. Either we build capacity at home, or we will keep paying, in US dollars, for our dependence.

• Dr De Matas is an assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.