The first Original Jurisdiction matter initiated by one CARICOM Member State against another will be heard this week by the Caribbean Court of Justice. The details of the matter of Belize v the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago are shown hereunder for your information:
HEARING DATES:
Tuesday 02 November 2021
Wednesday 03 November 2021
LOCATION:
Virtual
02.11.2021 Livestream link: https://bit.ly/CCJNov01
03.11.2021 Livestream link: https://bit.ly/CCJNov2
TIME:
10.15 A.M. AST (each day)
SYNOPSIS OF CASE:
Belize has brought proceedings against Trinidad and Tobago arising from the alleged failure of Trinidad and Tobago to comply with its obligations under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC). Under the RTC, CARICOM states are required to impose a 40% Common External Tariff (“CET”) on brown sugar imported from sources outside the Caribbean region.
Belize contends that it has evidence to demonstrate that between November 2018 to June 2020 brown sugar which was produced outside the Caribbean region, entered the market of Trinidad and Tobago without the 40% CET being imposed.
Trinidad and Tobago denies that it has permitted the importation of extra-regional brown sugar from any extra-regional territory without the imposition of the 40% CET.
The Court will be presided over by the Hon Mr Justice Saunders, President and the Hon Justices Wit, Anderson, Rajnauth-Lee, Barrow, Burgess and Jamadar. The Claimant is represented by Mr Andrew Marshalleck SC and Ms Samantha Matute-Tucker and the Defendant by Mr Terrence Bharath, Ms Amrita Ramsook, Ms Coreen Findley and Ms Sasha Sukhram.
The proceedings will be live-streamed on the CCJ’s YouTube channel and can be viewed via this link https://bit.ly/CCJvideos. For information on all the cases being live-streamed please follow the link: http://bit.ly/CCJlive.