All the talk about cruise tourism recently has centered over the Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, the proposed 100 million dollar project put together by Carnival and the Belize Ports Limited. What was a venture of great promise now seems to be one of great doubt, and the change is a result of not what's proposed, but what's been committed to in black and white in the 30 year agreement, which has been a secret guarded closely by both parties. Well tonight we'll show you why the guard has been up on this document as 7 News has obtained a copy of portions of what we are told is a 30 page agreement. The little seen document has now reached the private hands of competing tourism interests who are bitter opponents of the project. More than just opposing it, we are told they are set to launch a formal legal challenge. What are they so angry about? Well, there can be any number of complaints arising from the terms that we've seen, here they are:
Jules Vasquez Reporting
It was potent, celebratory symbolism in April of this year, when the government of Belize and carnival embarked on the most ambitious tourism project ever promised to Belize.
But while the imagery was celebratory, the agreement to back it up, is what's causing controversy right now.
The contract gives the carnival group, incorporated in a partnership with Belize Ports Limited as a new company called Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, or BCTL, a number of unprecedented concessions. First, the terms of agreement state that "the...agreement will bind government agencies including and without limitation, the Belize Tourism Board to adhere to and fully comply with their...obligations." That's a highly irregular clause, because it means that the agreement dictates and bypasses the policy and practices of what should be autonomous regulatory agencies.
The same goes for the casino and hotel it plans to build. The agreement says that the government "shall grant to Belize Cruise Terminal Limited a casino license." But even as the agreement makes sure no agency can try and regulate Carnival's Belize Cruise Terminal, it goes further, saying that - apart form the head tax charged on passengers, neither GOB nor the BTB will "impose any additional fee, assessments, impositions, charges or levies of any kind or nature on the Belize Cruise Terminal, Carnival or Belize Ports Limited."
And then, the single term that's been causing so much uproar; it says: "any law policy or regulation including the cruise ship policy, which limits in any manner the number of cruise passengers....shall not apply to passengers who arrive on carnival lines." That means, that
Carnival can bring as many visitors as it pleases, but adds, in what we take to be the kind of generosity only a multinational would demonstrate, (it) will accept limits on visits to archaeological sites - that is, once carnival approves those limits.
And even as Carnival accepts no ceiling on the number of visitors it brings, it gives no undertaking to work with Belizeans in exchange for that lavish concession. The agreement explains that government cannot force it to hire Belizeans. The terms of agreement says: "the government of Belize will not require (Carnival) to use any third parties including Belizean entities, nationals or government agencies in connection with...docking...(or) any aspect of the project and/or any business operations relating to the project."
That leaves Carnival to operate as it likes, and what does GOB get in return for all those concessions? Well not much, Carnival does not agree to any completion date, and instead supplies this hardly bolstering assurance. "BCTL will use its commercially reasonable efforts to complete the construction and operation of the pier within 30 months from the start of construction. Note it doesn't say when that start of construction is. And when the pier is done, "the remaining components will be completed, as expeditiously as possibly, to the extent commercially reasonable..." That's hardly a firm commitment, but it was good enough for the prime minister when he signed unto it, with the carnival principals on April 29th. But the question now is, is this agreement enough to justify the business and community hopes that have been invested in the project? That's been the debate on the tourism sector for the past week and with the exposure of this document, we're not sure where that debate goes from here.
Again, we have only obtained portions of what we are told is a 30 page document - and those other sections may lend more favorable interpretations to other areas of endeavor in the agreement. But to know that, we'd have to see the agreement, which is being kept as a secret document by the principals. What has also been a secret is the compensation package that government had to work out to appease Royal Cruise Caribbean Limited, RCCL. Appeasement was necessary because government broke the exclusive contract it had with RCCL when it signed the carnival contract in April.
With that, government was put in the unenviable negotiating position where it had to defend itself against a law suit for clear breach of contract. And that weak bargaining position begot an agreement that gives RCCL a government guarantee. As we understand it, government has Agreed that RCCL is entitle to head taxes from 900 thousand cruise passengers a year at 4 dollars a head, which is 3.6 million dollars. Government has now guaranteed that in any year when RCCL makes less than that figure off head tax, government will fill in the difference, with, guess what, taxpayers dollars. This puts RCCL in the very favorable position of not having to bring in even one visitor, when it has government's guarantee that it collect the head tax for 900,000 visitors.