A robust debate has been triggered by Guyana’s Local Content Act (the Act) between Guyanese and Trinidad and Tobago business organisations, businesspeople and involving some Guyanese public officials. The debate has had little input from ordinary Guyanese citizens. For example, there has been few, if any, letters in the press from Guyanese expressing outrage against Trinidadians for any reason. However, while the debate is limited to Trinidad’s business practices, trade policies and importance to Guyana as a Caricom member, there is a strong undercurrent in Guyana of resentment against what is believed to be Trinidad’s historically unflattering view of Guyanese due, it has always been believed, to Trinidad’s sense of its own superiority by virtue of its oil wealth as against Guyana’s relative poverty.
