(Jamaica Observer) Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister AJ Nicholson has rejected suggestions that Jamaica ban imports from Trinidad and Tobago as a retaliatory strike against the summary denial of entry to Jamaicans into that country.
On Tuesday, 13 Jamaicans, including an 11-year-old girl and a man who is married to a Trinidadian woman, were denied entry upon arrival at the Piarco International Airport in Port of Spain and were sent back to Jamaica the following morning.
Immigration officials at the airport seized the Jamaicans’ passports and ordered them to sit on a hard bench all night before shipping them out of the country, despite the fact that the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) allows for free travel between countries by Caribbean Community nationals.
The move by the Trinidadians is also a direct breach of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and defies a recent ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which handed down a judgment in favour of Jamaican Shanique Myrie who had sued the Barbados Government.
Myrie was refused entry into Barbados on March 14, 2011, was detained, subjected to a dehumanising cavity search, and deported to Jamaica the following day.
The CCJ, in its ruling on October 4, 2013, said that evidence Myrie presented about an illegal cavity search and detention in an unsanitary cell at the Grantley Adams International Airport and subsequent deportation was powerful enough for the court to award her BD$2,240 in pecuniary damages and BD$75,000 in non-pecuniary damages.
Last week, businessman William Mahfood, who was on the same return flight as the Jamaicans denied entry into Trinidad, called on the Government to reject Trinidadian goods at local ports if Jamaicans are not allowed free travel and to access gainful employment in that country.
But Nicholson cited the rules of the treaty as tying the hands of the Jamaican Government in blocking imports of Trinidadian goods.
He said the ministry is investigating the circumstances surrounding the return of Jamaicans from Trinidad and Tobago.
“The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishes a regime where goods that are classified as being of Caricom origin are entitled to duty-free treatment on entry into each Caricom member state, unless a member state has invoked a particular exception under the treaty. It would be a breach of Jamaica’s obligations under the treaty to block the entry of goods from Trinidad and Tobago, which qualify as being of Caricom origin, as a result of the allegations of unjustified denials of entry,” Nicholson told the Sunday Observer.
He said as a member state of Caricom, Jamaica can pursue other avenues of recourse to seek justice for the unjustified denial of entry of its citizens.
He said the country can engage in direct consultations with the relevant government and pointed out that that is presently being undertaken by his ministry. Nicholson also said Jamaica can utilise legal remedies through the CCJ.
Jamaica’s trade deficit with Trinidad is more than US$100 million.
However, while Nicholson chose the diplomatic route, Jamaican George Lopez said Jamaicans can use their purchasing power to hit the Trinidadians where it hurts most. “The only thing that works is the economic embargo. Don’t buy their goods, don’t give their children jobs. The Government won’t do it, so the people must,” said Lopez.
“I am going to remove my money from any financial institution that has ties to the eastern Caribbean. I have long boycotted them, my family and friends also, from the 1970s. They are racist,” he charged.