Silly gun-boat talk

The Barbados Government should reconsider its threat to seize all Trinidad and Tobago vessels entering its waters as well as have the country’s Coast Guard accompany all Barbadian vessels fishing near TT’s waters, as this can only lead to needless confrontation. Barbados is seeking to coerce Trinidad and Tobago to allow its nationals the unrestricted right to fish in TT waters, and this without reciprocity. We advocate caution and restraint by Barbados, which like Trinidad and Tobago is a Member State of the Caribbean Community of Nations (CARICOM) and, in turn, call for early talks to seek a settlement of the fishing dispute between the two countries. The Barbados Government appears bent on adopting what seems as an unreasonable position, what with its added threat of imposing a 100 per- cent duty on all its imports from Trinidad and Tobago. A meeting should be all that is required to settle the matter.

Any unilateral imposition by the Government of Barbados of a 100 percent duty on Trinidad and Tobago exports to that country is not only absurd but offends the spirit of CARICOM and regionalism, and can lead to needless misunderstanding. In past years, Barbados and St Lucia have used a loophole in the CARICOM Agreement to impose special high tariffs on this country’s products under the pretext of protecting their products — St Lucia with beer, and Barbados with aerated beverages. Any attempt, however, by Barbados to expand this to include all Trinidad and Tobago exports will be in violation, not simply of the CARICOM Charter, but the spirit of regionalism as well, and can lead to the fracturing of the Community. It may be that the Barbados Government is simply engaging in “robber talk” to gloss over serious economic and social problems facing the country, which it has difficulty in resolving. But to proceed with threats against Trinidad and Tobago as a means of deflecting public opinion from any internal problems is simply not on the agenda.

Already, the Barbados Administration has had a proposal informally thrown out by the Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, Mr Orville London, for Barbados to purchase surplus flying fish from Tobago fishermen. In this way, Mr London clearly believed that two birds could have been killed with the proverbial one stone: Barbados could have had the flying fish it required, and the long simmering dispute could have been settled. Mr London’s proposal, albeit informal, was diplomatically couched and undiplomatically rejected. And  instead of giving it the study it deserved, the Barbados Government has gone ahead with its clearly rash threat. And while on the issue of Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago relations, it would appear that Mr Owen Arthur their Prime Minister is a man with a short memory. Not so many years ago he was denying that he talked with then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday about the UNC’s decision not to renew the work permit of a Barbadian journalist. Today he is denying he ever spoke to Prime Minister Manning about the fishing dispute. Again, we urge caution and the seeking of a diplomatic solution to the  situation. The issue is too small to warrant all this gun-boat talk.