BY JULIE CARRINGTON | APR 21, 2023 |
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley speaking at the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Climate Services’ two-day workshop at the Accra Beach Resort and Spa, recently. (B. Hinds/BGIS)
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley is insisting that there is no tension between the Governments of Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago over fishing in the waters of the twin-island republic.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Climate Services’ two-day workshop at the Accra Beach Resort and Spa recently, Ms. Mottley said officials from each country’s Fisheries Department would meet to determine whether there was overfishing in Tobago’s waters.
The Prime Minister noted that a concern had been raised by “Tobagonian fishermen and as I understand it from Prime Minister Rowley, they have listened”.
She stated: “What Prime Minister Rowley and I have agreed is that there is no way that either of the two of us can tell you whether there has been overfishing. We do not believe so. My Minister and his department have told me that, but you can’t be adamant and they can’t be adamant. So, let the two Fisheries Departments meet and let them come to the conclusion based on the science and the evidence that is available.”
Regarding the long-standing issue about a fishing agreement between the two countries, Ms. Mottley pointed out that the Right of Establishment under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramus “gives any Caribbean person who lives in a country that is signatory to it, the right to go and set up a business anywhere”.
She continued: “The issue is irrelevant when you have the fact that Barbadians can go into Tobago and set up a fish processing plant any time, tomorrow or today, in the same way that Trinidadians can come here and own a hotel and establish a hotel.
“If we have to set up businesses, we can set up businesses there. So that has never been the issue,” the Prime Minister contended, while also suggesting that Government “may have to help some of the fishermen if they want to do that”.
Ms. Mottley added that an agreement to deal with the conservation and management of stock and preventing overfishing would be in the interest “of us all”.
