AG welcomes fishing debate

Jeremie, however, questioned the manner in which UNC political leader Winston Dookeran requested this debate and asked for a copy of the Court’s judgement in this matter.

On April 11, the tribunal ruled in favour of TT and Jeremie informed the Senate of that ruling at 1.30 pm on the same day. On Saturday, Dookeran called upon the AG to provide him with a copy of the tribunal’s judgement and for Parliament to debate it since it could harm diplomatic relations between TT and Barbados. Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday also expressed concerns on this issue last week.

In a statement yesterday, Jeremie noted comments by Dookeran on this matter and his request for a copy of the judgement. The AG said as part of his “prompt report to Parliament” on the tribunal’s April 11 judgement, he informed senators that the full judgement was available for viewing at the website of the Permanent Court of Arbitration of the International Dispute Resolution Centre, www.pca-cpa.org.

He further explained that as part of his ministry’s “commitment to transparency,” his ministry’s attorneys provided the Arbitration Court with the email addresses of all three daily newspapers and leading television stations prior to the release of the judgement. Jeremie said this was done so that the judgement could be transmitted directly to the local media “without interference by the Ministry of the AG.” “The media were therefore provided with full copies of the judgement at the same time as the interested parties and the AG promptly rushed to the Senate to apprise the Parliament of TT of the development,” he declared.

Jeremie added that notwithstanding the provision of the Court’s website to the Parliament and the availability of the judgement on the Internet, he was willing to download the judgement for Dookeran should that be necessary. The AG said he had no difficulty with the matter being debated by Parliament but found the St Augustine MP’s request for such a debate to be “curious.”

Jeremie said such requests are normally made either to the Speaker of the House of Representatives or the President of the Senate and not to his ministry. The AG added that he hoped that Dookeran as “a parliamentarian of some experience” would direct the appropriate motion to the relevant House of Parliament.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning leaves for Antigua tomorrow and while there, he is expected to speak with Barbados PM Owen Arthur about restarting fishing talks between the two countries.

Arthur has expressed Barbados’ willingness to do so.