Senate desk-thumping

THERE WAS thunderous desk-thumping from the Government and Independent Senators along with Opposition Senator Sadiq Baksh as Attorney General John Jeremie announced the Arbitration Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands ruled in this country’s favour on both the fishing and boundary issues in the dispute with Barbados.

Jeremie tried his best not to sound too triumphant as he informed the Senate that: “The tribunal today rejected on all counts, each and every claim made by Barbados, 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.” He added that the Tribunal also agreed to a request by Trinidad and Tobago to extend its 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,” Jeremie noted.

Jeremie outlined the importance of the ruling to this country, saying the mere referral of the 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”.

Jeremie said the dispute had implications for Trinidad and Tobago’s boundaries, especially off Tobago’s waters, as well as its boundaries with its neighbours in Grenada, Guyana, St Vincent and Venezuela.

Referring to the fact that the Barbados government wrote letters to the international energy companies interested in exploring what it (Barbados) deemed to be the “disputed area”, Jeremie stated the dispute “not only threatened the integrity of the unitary state of Trinidad and Tobago but also our exploitation of our economic rights”.

He pointed out that the tribunal agreed with TT’s position “articulated by the Attorney General, that the fishing agreement should be negotiated between the countries and had no place for resolution before the tribunal.”

“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,” he said.

However Jeremie was gracious in victory, thanking the Barbados Government “for the tireless effort which they have extended in this matter” and deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley for “the dignity and spirit of camaraderie which attended the hearings into the matter”.

Jeremie said he had already spoken to Mottley and they had both agreed to abide fully by the findings of the Tribunal award and co-operate in implementing its provisions.

By the time he concluded his statement, all the Opposition Senators had joined in the supportive table-thumping.