Faced with the identical challenge that had plagued Guyana some years ago, the government of Trinidad and Tobago is seeking, seemingly, to go down the same road travelled here by moving to impose a ban on scrap metal exports in order to put a brake on years of targeting by thieves of vital installations including national telecommunications infrastructure, for the stripping of metals, particularly copper, to feed a thriving international scrap metal market.
Just over a week ago the Stabroek Business reported that the twin-island CARICOM member state’s Attorney General, Reginald Armour, had disclosed that the country would be resorting to legislative measures in order to check the surfeit of metal theft that is effected by the mounting of stripping raids on targets that include some of the country’s important service entities including the telecommunications infrastructure.
At the time, Armour had been quoted as saying that the authorities would be examining legislation in place in some other CARICOM territories in order to determine the extent to which some of it can be applied in T&T in pursuit of remedial measures. It now appears that the disclosure by the island’s Attorney General has triggered concerns in the scrap metal industry that it might be a precursor to the complete closure of the sector, so much so that last week the country’s Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopie-Scoon moved to allay such fears by declaring that the authorities had no intention of moving in that direction. Apart from dismissing what appears to be the view among scrap metal dealers that the current six-month ban on the trade could be a precursor to a complete state takeover of the industry, she is quoted as saying that the existing ban on the trade had been deemed necessary by the authorities having regard to the spate of metal ‘raids’ on both public and private sector institutions which had resulted in millions of dollars in losses to the targeted entities.
As had been stated by the authorities here in Guyana, some years ago, after the problem of metal theft appeared set to lurch outside of official control, Minister Gopie-Scoon announced that the Office of the Attorney General was working on legislation to suitably regulate the industry in a manner designed to help curb metal theft. Contextually the Minister was quoted in a section of the T&T media as saying that the scrap metal industry in the CARICOM member country could become properly regulated within the next three months. In September 2020 the government of Guyana, under pressure mostly from the country’s crucial telecommunications sector, moved to impose a ban on scrap metal imports in an effort to staunch the surfeit of attacks by copper thieves on the company’s installations across parts of coastal Guyana.
