The ECCU to Take Trinidad & Tobago Government to Caribbean Court of Justice

The Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) says it will take the Trinidad and Tobago government to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

This concerns the non-payment of millions of US dollars linked to the collapse insurance companies CLICO and British American Insurance Company (BAICO) in 2009.

Chairman of the ECCU sub-committee on insurance, Prime Minister Gaston Browne, says the decision to take the Keith Rowley administration before the Port of Spain-based CCJ was taken over the last weekend.

The ECCU groups the islands of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Prime Minister Browne said the meeting agreed unanimously to take the Trinidad and Tobago government to court after three failed attempts to get them to pay the outstanding funds.

Trinidad and Tobago had made a commitment to pay 100 million US dollars to member countries but only 40million was disbursed following the collapse of C L Financial, the owners of CLICO and British American Insurance Company (BAICO).

In October last year, a group of British American and CLICO policyholders in the Eastern Caribbean filed a lawsuit at the CCJ against the Trinidad and Tobago government.

Prime Minister Browne said that the ECCU decision to follow suit had been in the works for several years.

Since taking over the chairmanship of the sub-committee on insurance in the ECCU last year, Browne has said that significant progress has been made in recovering some of the investments in CLICO made by residents of the Eastern Caribbean.

He noted for example that the Barbados government has agreed to pay 37 million dollars for the real estate assets of CLICO International in Barbados.