The Port of Belize remained closed for the 7th successive day today - and it's on the verge of causing a national crisis. Importers can't get their goods landed - and exporters can;can't get their products out. We told you last night about the CFS Pacora which has left Belize and is now on its way to Kingston, Jamaica - after sitting at anchor for 6 days, waiting for the port to re-open.
But it did not, and now the Pacora - with its 70 Belize-bound containers will have to, presumably, circle back, leaving government out of revenue, and merchants without their goods, which could lead to shortages on store shelves. Exporters also lost out on about 100 shipments which they were sending out.
And, there's no end in sight to this impasse between the management of the Port and the strike by the CWU. 7News has learned that another meeting between the sides was held today, facilitated by the Ministry of Labour. But, reliable sources tell us that too ended without any progress or resolution.
Reports say the Port is willing to resume negotiations on the Collective Bargaining Agreement, but wants the CWU to go back to work in the interim; while the CWU's stevedores say it will not go back to work until it has a CBA.
It's a real deadlock - and pressure is mounting on the government to resolve it because of the economic costs. One possible solution is to nationalise the Port. It's a very drastic step, which would pose myriad complications. But, speaking at a virtual press conference today, the Prime Minister said it is an option that's on the table:
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"Efforts at mediation has failed, is there any contemplation on the part of the government that nationalization may be a way to break the unpassed?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"All I'll say to sir is that has to be a consideration and I'll leave it there."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"We know that every entanglement with the Ashcroft alliance ends in tears for the Government of Belize as it has over these many years. Is there any sense of once bitten, tenth shy or twelfth shy, maybe?"
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"Ultimately, the situation dictates at the very least a contemplation of what you raised. Clearly this stalemate cannot continue. This of course has an effect on foreign exchange. We know and continue to say the position can't be optimum, can't be other than difficult challenging, this puts a further dent in our foreign exchange earnings. The stalemate, if ships can't be offloaded, some of them can perhaps go to Big Creek, but I don't know how much Big Creek is set up in terms of storage facilities and in terms of their ability to take all the containers that normally would be offloaded at the Belize City port, not sure what the situation is there, but you are talking about additional cost. So the chokehold, the strangle hold that is being exercise on the economy of this country, on the well-being of the citizenry of this country is not something that any government can contemplate with any kind of indifference. Nature of the action still to be determine. There is a hope that perhaps the 2 sides can come together, the minister of labour is making every effort to encourage them to try and settle their differences."
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