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First, he explained that the reason Belize finds itself in this situation-and why many other countries are facing similar financial issues-is because of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. He told us it was one of the main topics at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting he attended.

John Briceno, Prime Minister
"There are numerous things that we have to be able to take a look at, and tomorrow I'm going to give more of a report through the National Assembly, but what we have done is trying to save approximately about 50 million dollars. If it wasn't because of the war in Ukraine and Russia-which we would have hoped would have ended a long time ago-and now the conflict in the Middle East, we would not have been facing these challenges. At our Heads meeting, the heads of the biggest and most powerful countries in the Commonwealth started off saying it is time for us to work as nations in the world to come together to force an end to the war in Ukraine and Russia, and also then to end the conflict in the Middle East. Because if we do that, things will settle. It will take time for things to recalibrate, but at least it's a start. And now with the results of the election in the United States, I'm hoping that President Trump would recalibrate his thinking, because apart from the war and the conflict, we also have to think about the tariffs that were imposed on different nations and other countries in the Caribbean-especially in the Caribbean and Belize. We import a lot from the United States, so when those products are imported into the United States, they have to pay these high tariffs, and when we buy it back, who did you think pays for that? It is our consumers. So again, we are hoping if that can be worked out to where it was before, it will help to start to reduce the pressures on small and open economies and to the world economy."