TT shortlist 4 for UN hearing

FOUR persons have been short listed by the Trinidad and Tobago Government to represent this country in arbitration proceedings filed by Barbados with respect to the maritime boundary dispute. However, one person will be selected to represent TT, but this will depend on Cabinet’s final decision. TT have until next week to select their representative, but Government officials are wondering whether TT can be forced into arbitration.

On February 16, Barbados filed a claim with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, submitting a document of a dispute between the two countries concerning the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. Instead of going before the full International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Barbados decided to go to the next step — arbitration. Barbados appointed Vaughan Lowe, Chichele Professor of International Law, University of Oxford, as a member of the Tribunal. The Owen Arthur Government decided not to appoint a national of that country, but to go for a person with an international reputation.

Lowe represented Singapore against Malaysia before the International Tribunal late last year in a dispute involving sea space in the Straits of Johor. TT have two weeks in which to appoint their representative who could be a national or non-national. Government officials revealed that four persons have been shortlisted, but one will be chosen. Before that happens, Government is wondering whether TT can be forced into arbitration. If and when TT choose their representative, both persons will then sit to select the other three members on the five-member panel. If the two countries cannot agree to the other three persons, then the president of ITLOS, Dolliver Nelson, will choose the remainder of the panel. A dispute arose between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago last year over the failure of the two countries to negotiate new maritime boundaries.

Talks took place between representatives of the two countries while some mention was made of CARICOM intervening to settle the dispute. On February 7, two Barbados fishermen were arrested by TT Coast Guard for allegedly fishing illegally in TT waters. Surprisingly, when they appeared in the Scarborough Magistrates’ Court two days later, they were freed after the court prosecutor informed the court that he was offering no evidence against the Bajans. Prime Minister Patrick Manning and a team flew to Barbados on February 16 for talks, but no sooner had they returned to Port-of-Spain, the Barbados government filed a claim with the United Nations seeking arbitration in the dispute with TT.