Tonight a British Military vessel called Anvil Point is anchored off
the coast of Belize City awaiting further orders. The vessel is here with a
shipment for the British Army – and when the shipping agent, Caribbean
Shipping ran into difficulties with the private Port of Belize Limited, the
company sought the intervention of the Port Authority which regulates ports
in Belize. Sensing a deadlock and believing that the Port of Belize was charging
stevedore fees when no stevedores are being used the Authority granted permission
for the Anvil to do a most unprecedented thing: to off load at the Cucumber
Beach Marina at Old Belize.
That sent the Port of Belize to court where they today got an injunction
from Justice John Muria which barred the Port Authority, Caribbean Shipping
and Cucumber Beach from unloading the Anvil at Old Belize or any dock other
than the Port of Belize. Today the Port’s Luke Espat and Reynaldo Guerrero
told us why they had to go to court.
Jules Vasquez,
“The contention of the Port of Belize Limited is that this vessel should
under no circumstances be allowed to offload at Old Belize as it is scheduled
to. Would you explain the position of the Port of Belize Limited?”
Reynaldo Guerrero,
“The Port of Belize is the only legally authorized port to operate
here, meaning within the limits of what the Port of Belize actually is. It cannot
continue to unload at Old Belize because of an injunction that had been served
on the three parties, which is Belize Ports Authority, Caribbean Shipping Agents,
and the Old Belize.”
Jules Vasquez,
“But I spoke to the new Commissioner of Ports, Mr. Flowers, and he explained
that in fact he had no choice but to authorize that the Harbour Master to authorize
within his rights the offloading at Old Belize because Mr. Espat, your Port
of Belize Limited was imposing onerous, frivolous, stevedore charges upon the
shipping agency and by extension the British. What is your response?”
Luke Espat,
“Jules as per usual you know this has been an uphill battle. Mr. Flowers, 
the Port Commissioner, knows fully well that the Port of Belize is governed
by tariffs. We have no authority to charge nothing that is not in the tariffs.
Any international vessels, including vessels for local handling that goes to
the cayes, is governed by tariffs so the Port of Belize can’t do that.
What Mr. Flowers is acting out is the continuous sabotage, continuous aggressive
fighting with Port of Belize with no attempt to solve none of the ongoing disputes
at all. The Minister responsible for transport is acting irresponsible because
he knew fully well and he gave Flowers the instructions to break the law and
to go to Old Belize. We told them we would go to court to enforce our rights
and this is what is sad because the Chairman of the Port Authority Mr. Berges
interceded to try and bring some sense to this matter and that did not prevail
because Mr. Flowers made it clear this was the instruction of his Minister and
that is why he wrote the order that they can go and take this vessel and land
at Old Belize. The Port of Belize will not stand down and we will protect our
rights of investment.”
Jules Vasquez,
“Do you accept however that this is a special situation, it is not a merchant
importing, this is a friendly nation that is importing and moreover they have
a treaty with the government to facilitate them?”
Luke Espat,
“Well that is an easy one, we have treaties with the Americans but
they respect the law. The law is clear, the tariffs governs, the Port of Belize
charges for its services. If government wants to make special arrangements and
they pay the bill for these treaties and all these arrangements I have no problem.
This is a private facility. This is done in the United States, in Britain military
ships pay for landing at any of their ports, that is no secret in this world
of private enterprise. That happens everywhere. So where does that come into
the picture? And it is not that we were being uncooperative, we have always
been cooperative with the international institutions.”
Jules Vasquez,
“It is a legal dispute at this point but what I am saying is that by standing
in the way and insisting upon your fees, you all are in fact fomenting problems.”
Luke Espat,
“Jules I would have expected nothing different from you, you are a
mischief maker, but we stick to our rights and our grounds. I personally gave
a courtesy call to the British High Commissioner in view of the exact fact and
I explained to him that we are apologize for whatever reason but we have to
protect our interests and I am giving him a courtesy call to inform him that
I am sure that they did not make this mistake and their agent advised them wrongly,
and I would hope they know how to correct that in the future. But they can call
us at anytime and we stand available to work with them to see that the boat
is properly offloaded at the Port of Belize, where it should have been in the
first instance, and see that the ship goes on its way.”
Jules Vasquez,
“Will you allow them to offload it?”
Luke Espat,
“We will negotiate it with them, whenever their representatives get
here. 24 hours we are available.”
Jules Vasquez,
“But if they have to offload it under their own specifications.”
Luke Espat,
“That has nothing to do with you at this time. We will discuss that
with the relevant authorities because there is tariff. We will answer you, there
is a tariff for loading and offloading at the Port of Belize.”
Jules Vasquez,
“But you are not acting responsibly as an investor if you insist upon
such a fee, a charge.”
Luke Espat,
“There is no special, it is clear.”
Jules Vasquez,
“The long and short of it is whosoever fault it is, the Anvil Point is
out there and it can’t offload.”
Reynaldo Guerrero,
“It can offload, the Port of Belize is here.”
Luke Espat,
“It’s open 24 hours.”
We were unable to get comment from Caribbean Shipping.
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