OPINION: Tariffs: relax, fellow Guyanese

Last Updated on Sunday, 6 April 2025, 17:30 by Writer

by GHK Lall

Take it easy, my fellow citizens, don’t get riled up over what is out of the control of one’s own hands. Ease is on the way for Guyana; is in the works. Breathe easier private sector; that 38% tariff number will be given a haircut, almost to the point of baldness. This is what I sense coming, predict will happen. First, Guyanese at all levels must learn about US President Donald John Trump. To learn about Donald J. Trump is to know Mr. Trump, the heart that beats behind his signature US-blue suits. His mind, too. I cut through all the sweet stuff about ‘it’s a beautiful thing’ and a good time to ‘get rich’ and other such pearls of governance. I urge Guyanese to study the history of the man, get to appreciate of what makes him tick. I have had my ringside view of Mr. Trump pre-White House and other exciting times, so there is an advantage, which is shared.

Donald Trump is a dealmaker cum arranger inside a conductor, wrapped with the flair and nerves of a gambler. Real estate and mortgages. Bankrupt businesses and always emerging in one piece, ready to carry on. There has stirring up the faithful on the campaign trail aka rabblerousing, or the inspirational, depending on one’s point of view. A democracy rearranger, he has been. A crisis manufacturer who is also a scrapper. Legal affairs. Election matters (pre and post). As good at brinksmanship as Eisenhower’s man at the State Department, John Foster Dulles, and any of that storied ilk. Then there was messianic zeal in action. Now there is tariff. In the blink of an eye, Guyana went from favored friend to being among the bad boys on the block. Mistakenly so, I submit. Hence, the Trump tariff terrors will circle around Guyana, take a sniff, and move along. Here is why this is said with such confidence.

In Guyanese, what Mr. Trump is doing is ‘try a ting’ to see how some countries would sing. Hello, Mr. President! Exxon is over here and Schlumberger and Lindsay CH4 and American Airlines. President Ali can speak of engaging and Vice President Jagdeo chime in with ‘don’t panic.’ Matters not. Trump knows who and what he should push and just did; and he knows also who he should give some space. Guyana falls into the latter category. Like a smart trade union leader, Mr. Trump came high with his demands/tariffs. Productive talks are already happening with one of the bad boys, Vietnam. The negotiator in the man is at work, spinning webs. What starts out way out there has begun to come down to earth. Meanwhile, whether sleeping or rising, the Chinese are a bona fide giant. How about 34 in retaliation for 54%, as a beginning salvo? On everything American. They, too, will find a way to work anger out of their systems, and deal with the Don with a cool head. The Chinese know how to perform a mean tango also.

Thus, I say, listen closely to me: those big, fat tariff numbers of 38% and 49% and 54% all have their sanity point, tipping angle, and stabilizing level. Any way the wind blows, it is steeply downward. In other words, what first soared soon has to come back, find its footing on Mother Earth. Of this, let there be agreement. What Donald Trump has been doing with tariffs as his club was to beat some people’s brains out, and kneecap those that are really stubborn. In vice terms, put up and pay up. First, he has to push down. It is coming. This is where the man is in his element, which his history confirms. He will shake a tree to see what he will get. So, Guyana is on safe ground. Guyana has been giving all that it can give, and then some more. American companies are all in place, and they all have the run of the place here. Even the insane can’t make a robust case for imbalance or deficit with BG as the offender. I see 38 as out, with 10 being in, or even a more generous special dispensation for cooperative and collaborating Guyanese. Not with Germans, but Americans. If anyone said that Guyana is now Little America, far be it from me to put up too much resistance.

Here is the clincher. For Pres. Donald Trump, this is all a game to him. The White House Roulette that he refines, after its crude start. The private sector need not sweat. As the Beatles sang: ‘we can work it out’. There is that coming. What Trump smashed he will put right back together again, all by himself. Trust me on this bruising tariff business of his. Just another boring day in the life of Pres. Donald J. Trump. It is why I have so much regard for this latest American Caesar. So, just relax, fellow Guyanese. All will return to the old normal; well, almost. After all the thunder of sound and fury, sanity will return. Relax, folks.