HOCHOY ON FISHING TALKS — TOBAGO LEFT OUT

Minority Leader in the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Hochoy Charles, insisted yesterday that the question of TT maintaining a favourable balance of trade with Barbados was at the centre of the contentious fishing dispute between both countries.

At the same time, Charles lamented that the THA seems to be left out of the process at this crucial stage of negotiations. “Why isn’t the THA at the forefront of these discussions and is it really a Tobago/Barbados issue?” he queried. “Why aren’t we hearing any requests or anything coming from the THA Executive Council? We don’t know specifically what Barbados wants and what Trinidad is offering!” he declared. Charles was responding to the latest development in the ongoing impasse, in which Prime Minister Patrick Manning, in a ‘secret’ move, led a Ministerial team to Barbados for talks with that country’s Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, on Monday, and is scheduled to return today for continuation of these talks.

Charles yesterday declared that the whole issue was hinged on the question of Barbados being able to source goods outside of CARICOM with the introduction of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in January. “They (Barbados) could get goods from America cheaper (than from Trinidad and Tobago) when the FTAA comes on stream, so they ‘call a shot’ on Trinidad — ‘look we could get goods cheaper elsewhere so we have to get something in return.’ I am sure that they were saying that!” Charles told Newsday. He said that when he moved a motion — which was recently approved by the THA — calling on the Government not to sign or enter into any terms of a fishing agreement with Barbados, people did not know what he knew. “I had information that discussions were taking place between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. Government was quietly having discussions with Barbados with a view to maintaining the favourable balance of trade,” he charged.

Charles acknowledged that TT sells a lot of goods to Barbados, and noted that Manning was therefore “afraid” of the threats coming out of Barbados and its implications for Trinidad’s manufacturing sector, including loss of jobs etc. “So they were prepared to give away the Tobago fishing grounds,” he declared. “A lot of us don’t know what the introduction of the FTAA means for Tobago.” On the question of the matter being taken before the United Nations (UN), Charles told Newsday it might be “a blessing in disguise for Tobago. It might give Tobago an opportunity to air its views and articulate the problems that we are facing. Let it go there!” he asserted. He however was of the opinion that the UN could not deliberate on the fishing issue. With respect to reports that the Foreign Affairs Minister, Knowlson Gift, had issued instructions to the police in Tobago not to proceed with the matter against the captains of two Barbadian fishing vessels recently held in waters off Tobago, the Minority Leader said he was not aware of all the facts and could not say whether this was so.