PM Browne discloses that airport and seaport loans from China were renegotiated and claims payments are now current

Antigua and Barbuda is now up to date with its payments on construction
loans for the airport and cargo port, after the terms of these borrowings
allegedly were redrawn.

During a radio outing on Saturday, June 1, Finance Minister Gaston Browne
stated that these loans – taken from the Government of China – have been
renegotiated and the payments are now current.
 
He claims that the repayment terms under the restructured loan agreements
are even more favourable than those prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Meanwhile, Browne admits that Antigua and Barbuda had stopped making
payments without prior discussions or consent.
 
He admits, further, that this has been an occasional practice of his
Administration – even without the benefit of “pause clauses” being in place.

Finance Minister Gaston Browne.
Millions are still owed to the Chinese Export/Import (EXIM) Bank for the new
terminal at the V.C. Bird International Airport and the expansion of the sea
port, the Antigua Port Authority.
 
Last August, the Administration was accused of having defaulted on its loan
for the Port, as it had not made any payments up to that time.
It was during a parliamentary sitting that Barbuda MP Trevor Walker revealed
that no money had been paid on the loan since the Port expansion had been
completed and the facility handed over.
 
Browne admitted, then, that the Port Authority could not meet even the
interest payments – and therefore Central Government had had to assume
the responsibility.

He claimed that the Antigua Port Authority was not making enough money,
since the bulk of its earnings was going onto salaries and wages, and therefore
a review of its operations was pending.

However, Browne asserted that payments on the airport loan were being
made at the time.

He conceded that, during the COVID-19 period, the loan had fallen into arrears
due to what he said was a 50 percent drop in revenues, but
those arrears would be cleared in due course.

In January 2024, Browne took a high-level official delegation to China, where
he met with President Xi Jinping and signed a number of agreements – to the
surprise of the Nation, as the trip had not been announced in either the
Throne Speech or Budget Speech weeks before.

It was speculated, then, that the Government of China was calling in its debts
and the Browne Administration was making concessions it could not risk
making public.