(Trinidad Guardian) The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on Wednesday granted an application for special leave to Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) allowing it to challenge a report on the region’s trade in cement undertaken by Caricom’s Competition Commission. The action pertains to an investigation conducted by the commission into the operations of TCL in the production and sale of cement in Caricom, which commenced in December 2009.
In granting the application the seven judges that sat on the yesterday’s panel, which was headed by CCJ president Sir Charles Byron, ordered that attorneys representing the company file documents relating to the case within seven days. Wednesday’s sitting of the court was heard in the second courtroom of the CCJ’s Henry Street, Port-of-Spain headquarters.
In TCL’s application which was filed on November 1 last year, the company’s legal team led by Senior Counsel Dr Claude Denbow said that his clients were seeking to claim declaratory and injunctive relief from the courts as well as ancillary orders against the commission.
The Suriname-based commission, which was established in 2008 pursuant to Article 171 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, is mandated to monitor, investigate and penalise enterprises whose conduct prejudices trade and distorts competition within the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). According to the facts which were outlined by TCL in its application, the company claims that although the investigation began in late 2009, TCL was only informed of it on September 2, last year, upon receipt of a notice of enquiry issued by the commission.
The request for the investigation allegedly emanated from Caricom’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED). TCL also claimed that it was never consulted by the commission or given the opportunity to respond and was therefore deprived of its right to make representations to the commission.
“TCL says that it has been irretrievably deprived of its right and entitlement to avail itself of the procedural opportunities to object to and to make representations before any decisions were made by the commission to investigate and further to conduct an enquiry in respect to the COTED request,” the application stated.
In the application the company said it was requesting that the CCJ set aside or quash the enquiry relating to the investigation and/or to restrain or stay the holding of the purported enquiry.
In response to TCL’s application, Barbadian Queen’s Counsel Roger Forde, who is leading the commission’s legal team in the matter, claimed that the company’s action was premature.
