And from the discussion on that successful shipment of cattle, we asked the Agriculture Minister about his views on the lawsuit which Belize brought against the State of Trinidad and Tobago for alleged trade violations.
For the past 2 nights, we showed you how that case went before the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Belize has argued that Trinidad and Tobago allegedly violated the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. According to the Belize Government, Trinidad and Tobago allowed brown sugar to be imported into their borders from non-CARICOM countries without applying the required 40% Common External Tariff.
Belize alleged further that because of that Caribbean Single Market violation, sugars produced by Belize Sugar Industries Limited and Santander Sugar could not enter that country's market. You'll remember how Trinidad and Tobago strongly defended against that lawsuit and asserted that Belize has failed to provide strong evidence to support its claim.
Here's what Mai - who is also a cane farmer - had to say when we asked him about that lawsuit:
Hon. Jose Mai - Minister of Agriculture
"In the spirit of you know, trade within CARICOM, CARICOM member states must do the right thing. We are signatories to conventions. We are signatories to trade agreements among ourselves. But to undermine each other is not in the spirit of unity and within the CARICOM. It is wrong. It is unethical. And it is unlawful. That's why it is in the courts, and it must be corrected if we are to trade and continue trading with an effort to try to improve the economies of the region. When this type of behavior that Trinidad has showed, you know it is counterproductive and it's affecting the farmers of this country. This has to be corrected. If you look at the news recently, my ministry is focusing on opening trade to Mexico and Central America. We don't need this kind of headache from Trinidad. We have one container. We had one container of poultry sitting in Grenada for three weeks. We could not enter Grenada. We had to bring it back to the Belize. We don't need that kind of headache. Guatemala is 18 million population, El Salvador 6 million. Mexico is 123 million with any of these countries are the main trading partner. I don't need the CARICOM. I don't need that headache. My view."
