Manning meets Arthur in face-to-face talks

The Prime Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, Patrick Manning and Owen Arthur yesterday held face-to-face talks for three hours at a secluded area in Barbados in an effort to resolve the fishing and other related disputes between the two countries. The meeting came after weeks of threats from the Barbados PM to shut off the Barbados market to Trinidad and Tobago imports. Yesterday, the goods to be licensed under the new licensing import regime was to be gazetted. Manning left via Coast Guard aircraft and arrived in Barbados at 10 am. He returned to Piarco at 2 pm. He was accompanied by Trade Minister Ken Valley and Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift.

Sources stated yesterday that the Trinidad and Tobago delegation sought assurances about the threats to license local products. Arthur, they stated, advised that the licensing regime he was introducing was merely an exploratory and monitoring exercise which was totally unrelated to the fishing dispute, or to any trade sanctions. Trinidad and Tobago enjoys a favourable trade balance with Barbados. If this market is threatened, it would mean a loss of revenue for Trinidad and Tobago manufacturers and the loss of jobs in this sector. It is because of this that the Prime Minister is reaching out to his Barbados counterpart.

Sources said it was agreed at the meeting that the talks between both countries on a fishing agreement resume tomorrow in Barbados. The venue was initially Port-of-Spain and the date was February 25 and 26. However, in light of the growing tensions, the two leaders agreed to have the talks brought forward. Because of the Carnival season, however, there is no hotel space in Port-of-Spain, so it was shifted to Barbados. Cabinet is expected to meet in special session today to approve a ministerial team to head the technical team for those talks. Arthur announced on Saturday that Barbados did not want to resume fishing talks without discussions on a Delimitation Treaty. It is expected therefore that the ambit of the talks may be broadened to include this issue.         

Arthur: TT/Venezuela treaty not relevant to Barbados

At yesterday’s news conference in Barbados, Barbadian Prime Minister Owen Arthur issued the following formal statement: This morning Prime Minister Manning and I, along with our respective ministerial teams, met at Villa Nova where we held cordial discussions on a number of issues which have been the cause of recent concern to both ourgovernments. At that meeting, Prime Minister Manning confirmed that  he had fulfilled his undertaking to his colleague heads to submit the 1990 maritime delimitation treaty, between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, to review by his Cabinet. The review had concluded that in Trinidad and Tobago’s opinion, the treaty was law and that as a consequence Trinidad and Tobago could not act in contravention of the law.

As Barbados has made clear in the past, including through the Chief Negotiator for Barbados, Sir Harold St John during five rounds of negotiations, the Venezuela/Trinidad and Tobago Treaty of 1990 is not binding or relevant to Barbados or any other third state. It purports unilaterally to appropriate to Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago an enormous part of Barbados’ and Guyana’s maritime territory, as well as one-third of Guyana’s land territory. As Prime Minister of Barbados, I cannot be complicit  in any agreement, which threatens to usurp territory, maritime or land, that is contrary to international law, let alone the national interest of any CARICOM state, including Barbados. In fact, all members of the conference of heads of government of CARICOM annually reaffirm their commitment to support, the territorial integrity of Guyana with respect to the Venezuelan claims. I believe that Prime Minister Manning shares my assessment that there is no possibility of a negotiated settlement of the maritime boundary, between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago that does not compromise the interests of Barbados and Guyana.

Those interests are confirmed and have their legal justification in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, (UNCLOS) of which Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago are all parties. In the circumstances, the Cabinet of Barbados, after careful review of the current status of its negotiations with Trinidad and Tobago on maritime boundaries as well as the related area of fisheries, and after extensive consultation with its team of international law experts, has this afternoon concluded that it has no option but to commence binding dispute settlement procedures under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). I have therefore instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Barbados to issue a formal communication to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago notifying them that Barbados has triggered dispute settlementmechanism under UNCLOS. Simultaneously, Barbados has informed the secretary general of the United Nations and the president of the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea of the action taken by the Government of Barbados in this regard, consistent with the relevant provisions of the Convention by which Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are bound.

The attorney general of Barbados, the honourable Mia Amor Mottley QC, has been appointed as agent of Barbados and Mr Robert Volterra of Herbert Smith as co-agent, in the arbitration. Barbados has appointed, as its arbitrator, Vaughan Lowe, prof of International Law at the University of Oxford. The other arbitrators stand to be appointed by Trinidad and Tobago, and then either by agreement between the parties or by default by the president of the Law of the Sea Tribunal. At the same time, Barbados has proposed to Trinidad and Tobago that the meeting for Wednesday, February 18 be maintained to determine whether both parties may want to vary, by mutual agreement, any of the procedural rules of Annex VII of UNCLOS, and, further, to make every effort to enter into provisional arrangements of a practical nature, without prejudice to the final delimitation, relating to traditional fishing as conducted historically by Barbadians to the north of the territorial sea of the island of Tobago. As of today, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are both subject to a compulsory international arbitration process that will result in a binding award that will finally and authoritatively settle this dispute.