Dear Editor,
Cabinet must urgently confront the entrenched inefficiencies and unchecked practices within Shipping Agents’ of Trinidad and Tobago and the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, where high Local Administrative Charges, arbitrary USD conversion rates, and layered fees are being imposed on importers with no transparent regulatory oversight.
This ultimately drives up the cost of living in Trinidad and Tobago. At the same time, deplorable conditions and chronic delays at the Port of Spain Port and Point Lisas Port Customs Examination Stations, compounded by outdated manual processes despite systems like Navis N4 Terminal Operating System, have allowed a parallel private warehousing model to flourish where “efficiency” is monetized at the public’s expense.
Therefore, decisive reform is required now: enforce transparent fee regulation; mandate fair exchange rate practices; digitize and integrate all clearance processes; modernize CES infrastructure, eliminate redundant requirements such as wharf passes, and appoint competent, experienced port management to restore accountability, efficiency, and fairness to the nation’s trade gateway.
Cabinet must confront the growing inefficiency at the Central Examination Station (CES) in Point Lisas. Its continued non-operation is forcing brokers to process documents in San Fernando and then return to Point Lisas to access containers.
This creates a wasteful, time consuming loop that drives up costs for importers through rent and demurrage. This fragmented system undermines ease of doing business, delays cargo clearance, and places unnecessary strain on already burdened supply chains.
The introduction of appointment only clearance for LCL cargo is compounding the problem, creating bottlenecks instead of efficiency.
Immediate action is required to refurbish and fully operationalize the CES at Point Lisas, streamline clearance procedures, and eliminate duplicative steps, anything less is a failure of logistics management that is directly inflating costs for businesses and, ultimately, consumers. Top of Form
Gordon Laughlin,
Westmoorings
Bottom of Form
