Giving away our patrimony

THE EDITOR: Former Foreign Minister in the last UNC administration Mervyn Assam, spoke about the unfortunate retaliatory threats from the Barbados government involving a number of issues. All of these regional issues were inherited from a past PNM regime led by Patrick Manning whose government did not have the wherewithal to solve them.

Prime Minister of Barbados, Arthur Owens blamed the TT government then for a lot of things, such as allowing Taiwanese vessels to fish in our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) when all they were doing were utilising our fish-processing facilities in Port-of-Spain. Taiwanese fishermen do not have licenses to fish in our waters. Several times in the past the Guyana government had arrested TT fishermen for fishing in their EEZ. Our fishermen have also requested licenses to fish in the waters of other maritime countries including Suriname. Our EEZ is two hundred miles off-shore. The EEZ of Barbados is also two hundred miles off-shore according to their 1978 Marine Boundaries and Jurisdiction Act. But get this! About two hundred miles of water separate both islands!

To deal with this fishing issue which is only part of the entire fiasco, we need to establish a Fisheries Commission. This will decide the number and structural characteristics of fishing vessels for both countries. This Commission will also spell out the size, fishing season and catch quotas of different species of fish for fishermen of both countries. The UN Law of the Sea will decide on maritime jurisdictional matters or we can negotiate this aspect with the Barbados government for beneficial reasons. About 74 miles (170 km) off St Philip and in TT territorial waters, according to our EEZ, the Barbados government has embarked on an ambitious oil drilling programme. They have granted concessions to CONOCO and TOTALFINA/ELF, two conglomerate oil companies to drill exploratory wells in areas that cover our maritime space. This maritime space is subject to overlapping claims, as I have said above, for jurisdiction by both TT and Barbados under the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. This is a very explosive issue for Arthur Owens’ government presently!

The study on the migratory patterns of fish has been completed. Presently flying fish make up 53 percent of the 3,280 tonnes of fish that landed in Bridgetown last year. All of this flying fish is caught in TT maritime waters. This also shows how organised and effective the fishing industry of Barbados is, as compared to ours. We still use outdated pirogues to fish while they have capable fishing vessels. Some of the issues or some of the things that the Barbados government want from TT are that at least 160 of their fishing vessels be allowed to fish off Tobago. They also want a regional pipeline for gas with prices set under the CSME to improve the Caribbean manufacturing sector. (This will compete with our industries with our free energy given to them). And most of all, financing for a Caribbean Cruise Ship Line! Who benefits most of all? Is Arthur Owens aggressive? With the above issues at hand, think again! They are going to push us, and with a weak negotiating TT fisheries team and a PNM government that is conciliatory to the Barbados government, our sovereignty and hegemony is at stake here. Watch and see how the PNM is going to quietly give away our patrimony to the Bajans in the coming years. Happy Holidays!

DR CHRIS MAHADEO
Port-of-Spain