TT/Bajan fish row —

Today the Arbitration Tribunal at the International Dispute Resolution Centre in the Hague, ruled in favour of Trinidad and Tobago in the maritime boundary dispute between this country and Barbados.

By a Notice of Arbitration dated February 16th, 2004 Barbados initiated arbitration proceedings concerning its maritime boundary and a fishing dispute with Trinidad and Tobago.

According to the pleadings of Barbados, the matter related to the delimitation of a single maritime boundary between the exclusive economic zones and the continental shelves belonging to the two countries. The dispute was filed under Article 286 of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The Tribunal today rejected each and every claim made by Barbados on all counts, including the attempt by the Barbados government to secure all of the area south of the Median Line which they regarded as their traditional fishing ground, that is the area just off Tobago. The Tribunal also agreed to a request by Trinidad and Tobago to extend our maritime boundary to the continental shelf beyond the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone. This was an unprecedented ruling for an international maritime tribunal. It has never occurred before.

The Tribunal also agreed with Trinidad and Tobago’s position, articulated by the Attorney General in his closing remarks, that the fishing agreement should be negotiated between the two countries and had no place for resolution before the Arbitral Tribunal.

This was in keeping with the position adopted by Trinidad and Tobago throughout the proceedings.

Indeed in my closing submissions I told the Tribunal:

“The way for Barbados to obtain such access is to negotiate for it, something we were always ready to do until the fisheries negotiations were broken off by Barbados. We are still prepared to negotiate a fisheries access agreement with Barbados.”

While we were always confident of the outcome of these deliberations, the mere referral of this dispute was a significant threat not just to the exploitation of our oil and gas resources but to the livelihood of our fisherfolk, especially in Tobago, and threatened to compromise the very integrity of our treasured unitary state.

The dispute which was referred to the tribunal by Barbados, had implications for our boundaries, especially off Tobago’s waters, as well as our boundaries with our neighbours in Grenada, Guyana, St Vincent and Venezuela.

That is, it not only threatened the integrity of the unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago but also our exploitation of our economic rights. You would recall that letters were written by the government of Barbados to the international energy companies interested in exploring what our Caricom neighbour considered a disputed area. The matter has now been conclusively put to rest.

It is for this reason that from the very beginning we were determined to defend the integrity of the unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago vigorously, firstly by seeking negotiations with our valued Caricom partner and, subsequently when they decided to refer the matter for arbitration, recruiting to our legal team the leading experts in the world in boundary delimination. The Cabinet also took the decision that the Trinidad and Tobago’s case should be led by the Attorney General himself.

I wish today to express my gratitude to the public servants in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Agriculture Lands and Marine Resources and in the Ministry of the Attorney General who worked tirelessly and at short notice to facilitate the robust defence presented at the arbitration proceedings in London.

I wish to record their contributions by name for without the work of each of them today’s events would not have been a reality. All too often the phenomenal work of our dedicated public officers is ignored. Today, I recognize them publicly.

I also wish to thank the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the arbitral tribunal for the expeditious manner in which this dispute has been settled.

Today’s ruling not only confirms the legitimacy of our original position but has also extended our maritime boundary by shifting the median line demarcating the exclusive economic zones of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados. It allows us what many in the region had complained to be a Salida al Atlantico given by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to Venezuela. The Tribunal accepted our argument and ruled in our favour giving access to the Atlantic. It ensures the preservation of the integrity of our archipelagic resources. While it was always our position that the issue should have been settled through bilateral negotiations between two Caricom states with a history of fraternal relations, I wish to commend our friends and partners in Barbados for the tireless effort which they have extended in this matter.

This has not only expedited a conclusion to a longstanding debate but also established a template for the resolution of similar disputes in the region. I wish in particular to commend my friend, the former Attorney General of Barbados, deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley, for the dignity and spirit of camaraderie which attended the hearings into the matter.

I have already spoken to Ms Mottley on this issue and we have both agreed to abide fully by the findings of the Tribunal award and co-operate in implementing its provisions. We look forward to the deepening and strengthening of the relationship between our two countries which continues to be at the heart of the regional integration movement.

While in legal proceedings it is commonly the case for one party to claim victory and the other to claim some sort of victory in such proceedings, inevitably there is a winner and there is a loser. I think that we have both won something.

In the case of my brothers and sisters in Barbados, I apologise for some of the robust arguments which I made in the heat of our arbitration hearing. The Arbitration award is now public knowledge and is available at the website of the International Arbitration Tribunal.