After Hague ruling —

OPPOSITION Leader Basdeo Panday yesterday said it was a pity the TT/Bajan fish row had degenerated to the level where the issue had to go to an international court and added that this development could result in strained relations between the two Caribbean neighbours.

An arbitral tribunal in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in The Netherlands yesterday delivered its verdict on the matter in favour of TT.

Proceedings were held in London in October last year. Commenting on the matter at the Opposition Party’s Charles Street, Port-of-Spain office yesterday, Panday said, “It may strain relations a bit. Bajan fishermen will be restricted from TT’s waters. But there was no need for that.”

He further noted: “I had always thought that this matter should have been solved by negotiations between two Caricom brothers.

“It’s a pity they took the adversarial course of an international court.”

Panday said despite that however, Barbados and TT should sit and negotiate an agreement acceptable to both sides.

The Award establishes a single maritime boundary between Barbados and TT that differs from the boundaries claimed by each of the parties in their pleadings before the tribunal.

The boundary, for the most part, follows the equidistant line between the two countries but, in its eastern Atlantic sector, adjusts that line to take into account the coasts of TT that abut upon the area of overlapping claims.

The tribunal also found that the two countries are under a duty to agree upon the measures necessary to co-ordinate and ensure the conservation and development of flying fish stocks and negotiate in good faith and conclude an agreement that will accord the fisherfolk of Barbados access to fisheries with the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of TT, subject to conditions of the agreement.