(Trinidad Express) Exporting Liquified National Gas (LNG) to Jamaica is now a national priority for this country’s Government.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning said this was because Jamaica is facing a serious challenge with its alumina industry, as he expressed the Government’s view that the fellow Caribbean Community (Caricom) product will be processed at an aluminium smelter in Trinidad and Tobago “one day”.

“With a debt to GDP ratio of 130 in Jamaica, the one thing that Trinidad and Tobago could not allow is a further deterioration in the economic situation in that country. We cannot allow it,” Manning said.

He spoke on the issue as a matter of great urgency, during his closing remarks at the People’s National Movement (PNM) special convention at the Chaguaramas Convention Centre on Sunday. His comments also came just days after the High Court ruled that the approval granted by the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) for the Alutrint smelter in this country was unlawful.

The supply of LNG to Jamaica from Trinidad and Tobago has been the subject of long-standing discussions between both countries, but Manning said the ongoing international financial crisis has led to a reduction in the demand for alumina, which is a key exporter revenue earner for Jamaica.

“The supply of LNG to Jamaica from Trinidad and Tobago must now be a national priority for the Government of Trinidad and Tobago,” Manning said.

He said several of Jamaica’s alumina refineries have been shut down, but that situation is changing and once it rebounds, Jamaica has to be in a position to expand its alumina manufacturing.