T&T: One more fishy story

After this, no more.

Barbados has been saying they want more access to the fish in T&T’s waters, but they have not been offering anything in return said Anselm Francis, a senior lecturer at the Institute of International Relations.

Furthermore, Francis said oil and gas reserves in T&T’s waters could be one of the resources Barbados is seeking access to as it is now challenging the legality of a delimitation agreement between this country and Venezuela.
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He also said that there was no link between Barbados’ claims of unfair treatment regarding fishing access in T&T’s waters and the $1 billion plus in trade between the two countries.
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“What one has to bear in mind is that Barbados was not offering anything in return. T&T’s fishermen were not seeking any access to Barbados’ waters.”
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In a statement to reporters on Monday after he met with a high level T&T delegation, led by Prime Minister Patrick Manning in Barbados, Arthur said his Government did not recognise a 14-year-old delimitation agreement between T&T and Venezuela.

As long as there is no settlement over territorial boundaries between T&T and Barbados, one side can always contend it has the right to access specific areas because the lines are not clear, said Francis.

On Monday, Arthur said the T&T/Venezuela delimitation agreement infringes upon “an enormous part” of the maritime territory Barbados and Guyana, as well as one-third of Guyana’s land territory.

Yet Francis noted when it comes to fish stocks in T&T’s waters, the laws on the issue are very specific.

“If there is a surplus of fish resource, surplus being the operative word, the country should give access to other countries to harvest that surplus,” Francis said.

“T&T’s surplus is to be determined by T&T. It is not Barbados which, according to the law, is to determine that surplus.”

Francis agreed with the T&T Government that Barbados has no right to extract fish supplies from this country’s territorial waters without its permission.
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He noted that T&T never said Barbadian fisherman cannot access this nation’s waters, but the issue had to do with the number and the size of the boats.
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As for Barbados’ argument that Taiwanese fishing vessels are being given preference to Barbadian boats, Francis said that argument is weak.

Barbados has said its fishermen should be allowed to collect fish in T&T’s waters and bring it back to Barbados instead of having the fish collected by the Taiwanese and then sold to them.

Francis said the fish that the Taiwanese collect from T&T’s waters is processed locally and not sent to Taiwan.

“What they (Barbados) are asking for is not really similar to the deal between T&T and the Taiwanese,” he said.