Trinidad and Tobago/ Grenada Maritime Boundary Delimitation

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Law, Economics and Politics: Trinidad and Tobago/ Grenada Maritime Boundary Delimitation

Carlyle L. Mitchell*

Introduction

In 2010, two years after the establishment of the Joint Commission on Maritime Boundary Delimitation (JBC) by the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada, a Boundary Delimitation Treaty formalizing the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) boundary between Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada came into effect.1 The Treaty is a good example of the interaction of law, namely the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS Convention),2 economics, and politics in maritime boundary delimitation. It has implications for the timely settlement of maritime boundaries, the evolution of maritime delimitation law by judicial decisions, and small island developing States (SIDS) and other small States. Edgar Gold was actively involved with developments leading up to the boundary delimitation agreement between Trinidad and Tobago and Gre- nada by accentuating the need for the development and management of the marine space of the EEZ of small island developing States in the Eastern Caribbean. He headed the activities of Dalhousie University Ocean Stud- ies Programme (DOSP) in the Caribbean in the 1980s that examined the implications of the LOS Convention for the countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).3

* Adjunct Professor, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Canada. 1 Treaty between the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada on the Delimitation of Marine and Submarine Areas, done at Port of Spain, 21 April 2010, Law of the Sea Bulletin, No. 73 (2010), 43–46. 2 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Montego Bay, 10 December 1982, 1833 U.N.T.S. 397. 3 See: C. L. Mitchell, “The Legacy of Dalhousie University Ocean Studies Programme (DOSP) in the Caribbean,” in Aldo Chircop, Ted L. McDorman, Susan J. Rolston, eds., The Future of Ocean Regime-Building: Essays in Tribute to Douglas M. Johnston (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2009), 723–736 and E. Gold, ed., A New Law of the Sea for the Caribbean: An Examination of Marine Law and Policy Issues in the Lesser Antilles (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1988). 30 Carlyle L. Mitchell

Since the 1980s, there have been a number of maritime boundary delimitation agreements concluded in the Caribbean region. There has also been the 2006 Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago Arbitration4 and the 2007 Guyana and Suriname Arbitration.5 The Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada approach to maritime boundary delimitation, utilizing a joint boundary commission, demonstrates that this approach can be effective and efficient in attaining its objective and can serve as a model for other small island and small States to follow.

Background

Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada held maritime boundary negotiations in 1992 and 1993 that were inconclusive. However, it was apparent from the two meetings that Trinidad and Tobago sought, on the basis of the 1958 Geneva Continental Shelf Convention6 and the 1982 LOS Convention, to ensure that an EEZ boundary would encompass its entire continental shelf area based on the premise that Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada had distinct shelf areas. Grenada held the position that the LOS Convention superseded the 1958 Continental Shelf Convention and that, based on equidistance, Grenada’s EEZ boundary would include a small area of the South American shelf shared by Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. The importance of this was that access to the South American shelf might provide Grenada with the potential to exploit the hydrocarbon resources of this area. Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela were already, or in the process of, exploring and exploiting hydrocarbon resources in the South American shelf. Clearly, the politics of oil and gas were a key factor in the EEZ boundary objectives of both countries. The conflicting objectives and positions constituted a serious barrier to establish- ing formally the EEZ boundary between both countries. In 1990, after negotiations that had covered a 13-year period, Trinidad and Tobago signed a boundary agreement with Venezuela.7 In the early 2000s, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados had delimitation negotiations that resulted in their resorting to arbitration for settlement.8 Both the Venezuela and Barbados delimitations had implications for the Grenada/Trinidad and

4 Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago Arbitration, 11 April 2006, I.L.M. 45 (2006), 800. 5 Guyana and Suriname Arbitration, 17 September 2007. http://www.pca-cpa.org/showpage .asp?pag_id=1147 (accessed 1 November 2011). 6 Convention on the Continental Shelf, Geneva, 29 April 1958, 499 U.N.T.S. 312. 7 Treaty between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela on the Delimitation of Marine and Submarine Areas, done 18 April 1990, reproduced in J. I. Charney and L. M. Alexander, eds., International Maritime Boundaries, Vol. I (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1993/1996), 685–689. 8 Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago Arbitration, supra note 4.