By Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Francis
THE SUPREME Court yesterday turned down an application by B&D Trawling Ltd, owned by Pat Francis, president of JAMPRO and her husband Roderick, for an order to compel the Government to issue health certificates to lift the ban on its conch shipments valued at US$350,000.
Mr. Justice Lloyd Hibbert, after hearing submissions in chambers from the lawyers representing the parties, ruled that B&D Trawling did not follow the proper procedures to bring the matter to the Judicial Review Court and dismissed the summons.
The dispute between B&D Trawling and the Government began in November last year when it shipped 40,000 kilos of local conch valued at US$350,000 to Martinique.
The Ministry has since started investigating other shipments of conch from Jamaica made by B&D Trawling, including two to Guadelope, involving millions of US dollars. The Police Fraud Squad is also investigating two other shipments allegedly diverted from the Bahamas to the US before they could be intercepted.
In December, the Veterinary Division wrote to the European Commission advising that the two containers shipped to Rene Lancre S.A. Martinique, left Jamaica illegally based on document misrepresentation to the Division. A request was also made for immediate steps to be taken to withdraw and hold the consignments so that they may not enter the distributive trade in Martinique.
The Division asked that the consignments be confiscated and returned to Jamaica to further facilitate an enquiry which was in progress.
There were allegations that because the conch was not properly processed in a European Union approved facility, the bacterial level was much higher than acceptable to the European Market levels and could threaten local conch exports to the EU.
Mr. Francis stated in his affidavit that the conch was properly processed at Ton-Rick Enterprises' approved EU-facility in St. Thomas and that certification from the VSD was properly acquired in order to obtain the export certificate from the Ministry of Agriculture and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). Ton-Rick has denied processing the conch.
Following the ban, B&D Trawling filed the suit against Ton-Rick, Dr. George Grant, head of the Ministry of Agriculture's Veterinary Services Division, and the Attorney-General.
The company filed a summons seeking to have the certificates, which were issued to it by the Ministry of Agriculture and NEPA, reinstated so that its conch shipments could proceed but failed in the court yesterday.
