Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline during the July 7, 2026, airing of his show Honestly Speaking on ZBVI 780 AM. Photo: Facebook

Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline alleges that Hon Lorna G. Smith, OBE (AL), decimated the Trade Commission. Photo: Government of the Virgin Islands

During Honestly Speaking, on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, on ZBVI 780 AM, he again brought up the Trade Department, saying, “I’m going to speak about it again because I don’t think you all understand what  is happening and right now this country economically, despite of what you hear, right now the paralysis is setting in; the economic paralysis is setting in.”

Using the saying ‘A hungry man is an angry man’, Skelton-Cline said there is real suffering and pain in the Virgin Islands. 

“People really can’t make ends meet. Seniors are really suffering, some of them isolated. Pensioners are having a difficult time. What about that you don’t understand? And if you understand that, why is it that we are not making, going out of our way, sacrificing, making the gallant efforts to something about it?”

Hon Lorna G. Smith dismantled the Trade Commission

According to Skelton-Cline, since 2004/2005, the Trade Department, through about three Cabinet administrations, began developing a policy for the establishment of a Trade Commission, which was eventually established along with the Trade Commission Act 2020 under the Andrew A. Fahie administration. 

It was further advanced under the Unity Government led by Premier Dr Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) with the institution of the Trade Commission in 2022/2023. 

He said following the April 2023 general election, Hon Lorna G. Smith, OBE (AL), who ran on a National Democratic Party (NDP) ticket, crossed the floor to join the Virgin Islands Party (VIP), giving them a majority to form the government. Skelton-Cline alleged that Hon Smith dismantled and decimated the Trade Commission, throwing away almost 16 years of work and effort. 

“A board put in place, Chair established, so that you can receive the consumer protections, deal with the anti-trust, executing the development of the economic foundation that was laid by public officers and consultants. In one swoop, one person, at the behest of the existing government, decimated [the Trade Commission]”

No plan for diversification of economic agenda

Skelton-Cline said people, including Hon Smith, can “cry foul” blaming this situation for the Virgin Islands’ inability to do anything when the United States implemented tariffs. 

“We in no position, no entity, no proper system in position to address these methods and how it impacts our ocean state. No program, no plan, no agenda for the diversification of our economic agenda, and our economic outlook.”

He added that all the people of the Virgin Islands keep hearing and are being told about things to come and to be done. “We must demand that this elected government put the things back in place that is most useful and beneficial to us as a people.”