Departing ambassador: Germany seeks new chapter in relations with T&T

Ger­man Am­bas­sador Dr Christophe Eick points to Ger­man in­volve­ment in Point Lisas, con­tin­ued par­tic­i­pa­tion in the en­er­gy sec­tor, and grow­ing in­ter­est in re­new­able en­er­gy, food ex­ports and trade di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion as ev­i­dence of an eco­nom­ic re­la­tion­ship that con­tin­ues to evolve be­yond its tra­di­tion­al foun­da­tions.

For more than six decades, Ger­many and Trinidad and To­ba­go have main­tained close diplo­mat­ic and com­mer­cial ties, with the re­la­tion­ship root­ed large­ly in in­dus­try, en­er­gy, and trade. While petro­chem­i­cals re­main a cen­tral pil­lar, the fo­cus is in­creas­ing­ly shift­ing to­wards re­new­able en­er­gy, cli­mate re­silience, tech­nol­o­gy, and ex­pand­ing mar­ket ac­cess be­tween Eu­rope and the Caribbean.

The long his­to­ry of Ger­man in­vest­ment is per­haps most vis­i­ble at Point Lisas In­dus­tri­al Es­tate, where many of the am­mo­nia and methanol plants that helped es­tab­lish the coun­try as a glob­al en­er­gy ex­porter were de­signed and con­struct­ed by Ger­man com­pa­nies.

“His­tor­i­cal­ly, we’ve been one of the biggest in­vestors,” Eick re­flect­ed dur­ing a sit-down in­ter­view last Wednes­day with the Sun­day Busi­ness Guardian.

Al­though own­er­ship struc­tures have changed over the decades, Ger­many’s in­dus­tri­al foot­print re­mains vis­i­ble through­out the en­er­gy sec­tor. Com­pa­nies such as Siemens En­er­gy con­tin­ue to pro­vide main­te­nance, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, and tech­ni­cal sup­port ser­vices to ma­jor in­dus­tri­al fa­cil­i­ties, pre­serv­ing a con­nec­tion that stretch­es back gen­er­a­tions.

The am­bas­sador views that lega­cy as a foun­da­tion for fu­ture growth rather than sim­ply a re­minder of past achieve­ments.

For Eick, the re­la­tion­ship be­tween Ger­many and T&T ex­tends be­yond eco­nom­ics and diplo­ma­cy.

His con­nec­tion to the coun­try spans more than three decades. He first ar­rived in 1993 as a ju­nior diplo­mat on his first over­seas post­ing and lat­er re­turned as am­bas­sador for the fi­nal chap­ter of a diplo­mat­ic ca­reer that took him around the world.

His wife is Trinida­di­an, and the fam­i­ly main­tained close ties with the coun­try through­out the years, re­turn­ing reg­u­lar­ly even while sta­tioned else­where.

“I learned the ropes here in Port of Spain,” he re­called.

As he pre­pares to con­clude his as­sign­ment on June 30, the am­bas­sador re­mains con­fi­dent that the re­la­tion­ship will con­tin­ue to evolve.

Trade and in­vest­ment

Ger­many re­mains one of Eu­rope’s lead­ing ex­port­ing na­tions, and its com­pa­nies con­tin­ue to ex­plore in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties around the world. Eick de­scribed over­seas in­vest­ment as part of Ger­many’s eco­nom­ic DNA, not­ing that busi­ness­es are con­stant­ly search­ing for new mar­kets, part­ner­ships and com­mer­cial op­por­tu­ni­ties.

That search in­creas­ing­ly in­cludes the Caribbean.

One area at­tract­ing grow­ing at­ten­tion is food im­ports and dis­tri­b­u­tion. Ger­man com­pa­nies are ex­am­in­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties to sup­ply prod­ucts to Caribbean mar­kets as busi­ness­es re­assess sup­ply chains and seek greater di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion.

The dis­cus­sion has be­come more rel­e­vant amid con­tin­u­ing un­cer­tain­ty in glob­al trade and con­cerns about tar­iffs af­fect­ing tra­di­tion­al trad­ing routes.

“There are some things on­go­ing,” Eick not­ed, when dis­cussing po­ten­tial com­mer­cial op­por­tu­ni­ties be­tween Ger­many and the re­gion.

Trade re­la­tions are al­so sup­port­ed by the Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agree­ment be­tween Car­i­fo­rum states (Cari­com plus Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic) and the Eu­ro­pean Union. The arrange­ment al­lows tar­iff-free trade be­tween mem­ber coun­tries and Eu­rope, cre­at­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for greater ex­ports and im­ports on both sides.

While the frame­work ex­ists, Eick ac­knowl­edged that im­ple­men­ta­tion re­mains a work in progress. Ad­min­is­tra­tive pro­ce­dures, leg­is­la­tion, and reg­u­la­to­ry re­quire­ments can slow the pace of com­mer­cial ex­pan­sion even when trade agree­ments are al­ready in place.

“There should be a free flow of goods and ser­vices be­tween our two re­gions,” he re­marked.

He ex­pressed op­ti­mism that the re­main­ing ob­sta­cles can be ad­dressed over time, cre­at­ing stronger com­mer­cial links and in­creas­ing trade vol­umes.

Ger­man prod­ucts al­ready en­joy strong vis­i­bil­i­ty in the lo­cal mar­ket. Lux­u­ry and pre­mi­um au­to­mo­bile brands such as BMW, Mer­cedes-Benz, Au­di, and Volk­swa­gen con­tin­ue to com­mand sig­nif­i­cant recog­ni­tion among con­sumers, re­flect­ing Ger­many’s rep­u­ta­tion for en­gi­neer­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing qual­i­ty.

Be­yond con­sumer prod­ucts, bi­lat­er­al agree­ments have helped fa­cil­i­tate busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ty. Tax in­for­ma­tion and mu­tu­al as­sis­tance agree­ments are de­signed to pre­vent dou­ble tax­a­tion and cre­ate a more pre­dictable en­vi­ron­ment for com­pa­nies op­er­at­ing across ju­ris­dic­tions.

The am­bas­sador be­lieves these arrange­ments con­tribute to a stronger in­vest­ment cli­mate and en­cour­age long-term com­mer­cial re­la­tion­ships.

The next en­er­gy chap­ter

While Ger­many’s his­tor­i­cal con­tri­bu­tion to the coun­try’s en­er­gy sec­tor cen­tred on petro­chem­i­cals, fu­ture co­op­er­a­tion may look very dif­fer­ent.

Eick be­lieves the glob­al en­er­gy tran­si­tion presents op­por­tu­ni­ties for deep­er col­lab­o­ra­tion in re­new­able en­er­gy and emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies. Ger­many has in­vest­ed heav­i­ly in wind pow­er, so­lar en­er­gy and green hy­dro­gen and has be­come one of the world’s lead­ing pro­duc­ers of re­new­able en­er­gy tech­nolo­gies.

As Caribbean coun­tries seek to di­ver­si­fy their en­er­gy mix, Ger­man com­pa­nies are pay­ing close at­ten­tion.

“I know that T&T is look­ing in par­tic­u­lar at wind en­er­gy as one of the sources in the fu­ture of re­new­able en­er­gy,” he ob­served.

The po­ten­tial for green hy­dro­gen al­so re­mains an area of in­ter­est.

Hy­dro­gen pro­duced through re­new­able en­er­gy sources is in­creas­ing­ly viewed as a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of glob­al de­car­bon­i­sa­tion ef­forts. Ger­many has po­si­tioned it­self at the fore­front of that sec­tor and sees op­por­tu­ni­ties to share ex­per­tise and tech­nol­o­gy with in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners.

“If the op­por­tu­ni­ty aris­es, I’m sure that Ger­man com­pa­nies would be look­ing at that area,” Eick stat­ed.

Re­cent geopo­lit­i­cal con­flicts have re­in­forced the im­por­tance of en­er­gy di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion. The am­bas­sador point­ed to the im­pact in­ter­na­tion­al ten­sions can have on en­er­gy prices and glob­al sup­ply chains, ar­gu­ing that coun­tries should con­tin­ue ex­plor­ing al­ter­na­tives that re­duce de­pen­dence on fos­sil fu­els.

“The (US/Iran) war and the ef­fect it had on oil and gas ac­tu­al­ly showed that you should not be de­pen­dent on fos­sil fu­els,” he main­tained.

At the same time, he ac­knowl­edged that en­er­gy tran­si­tions are com­plex and in­flu­enced by eco­nom­ics, in­fra­struc­ture and na­tion­al pri­or­i­ties.

For Caribbean coun­tries with es­tab­lished oil and gas in­dus­tries, bal­anc­ing tra­di­tion­al en­er­gy pro­duc­tion with in­vest­ment in re­new­ables will re­main an on­go­ing chal­lenge.

Be­yond diplo­ma­cy

While trade and en­er­gy dom­i­nat­ed much of the in­ter­view, Eick iden­ti­fied cli­mate change as one of the defin­ing is­sues of his tenure.

Ger­many’s em­bassy in Port of Spain serves as a re­gion­al mis­sion cov­er­ing ten coun­tries, in­clud­ing Guyana, Suri­name, Bar­ba­dos, Grena­da, St Lu­cia, and St Kitts and Nevis.

That role pro­vid­ed a broad per­spec­tive on the chal­lenges con­fronting small is­land de­vel­op­ing states.

“I would say one of the main is­sues is cli­mate change,” Eick re­flect­ed.

He be­lieves one of his most im­por­tant con­tri­bu­tions has been help­ing raise aware­ness in Ger­many about the re­al­i­ties fac­ing Caribbean coun­tries.

The re­gion’s vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to ex­treme weath­er events, coastal ero­sion and en­vi­ron­men­tal degra­da­tion has be­come an in­creas­ing­ly im­por­tant part of diplo­mat­ic dis­cus­sions be­tween Caribbean gov­ern­ments and in­ter­na­tion­al part­ners.

Ger­many has sup­port­ed a range of cli­mate-re­lat­ed ini­tia­tives through­out the re­gion.

Among the most sig­nif­i­cant are bio­di­ver­si­ty and ma­rine con­ser­va­tion projects val­ued at ap­prox­i­mate­ly €30 mil­lion. These pro­grammes are be­ing im­ple­ment­ed through part­ner­ships in­volv­ing gov­ern­ments, re­gion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions, and the Ger­man de­vel­op­ment agency GIZ.

Pro­tect­ing ma­rine ecosys­tems, pre­serv­ing bio­di­ver­si­ty and strength­en­ing cli­mate re­silience re­main cen­tral pri­or­i­ties.

The am­bas­sador al­so high­light­ed Ger­many’s sup­port for re­gion­al se­cu­ri­ty ini­tia­tives. Work­ing along­side the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Im­ple­men­ta­tion Agency for Crime and Se­cu­ri­ty (IM­PACS), Ger­many has as­sist­ed pro­grammes aimed at re­duc­ing small-arms pro­lif­er­a­tion and strength­en­ing re­gion­al re­spons­es to crime.

Crime re­mains an im­por­tant is­sue for in­vestors eval­u­at­ing busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties, Eick ac­knowl­edged.

“The busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment is al­so im­pact­ed by crime,” he not­ed.

Ef­forts to im­prove se­cu­ri­ty can there­fore sup­port both eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment and in­vest­ment at­trac­tion.

The foun­da­tions built through decades of in­vest­ment in en­er­gy and in­dus­try re­main strong, but new op­por­tu­ni­ties are emerg­ing in re­new­able en­er­gy, cli­mate re­silience, tech­nol­o­gy, tourism and trade.