BENEFITS TO T&T OF SAN JOSE TREATY

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Trinidad and Tobago's recent signing of the Treaty of San Jose.. is an added layer in the country's fight.. against gun and drug trafficking. It means.. that eight countries have easier access to T&T's waters and airspace, and vice versa.., for the purpose of suppressing those illicit activities. Alicia Boucher tells us more.

Transcript

00:00Signatories to the Treaty of San Jose are Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France,

00:06Guatemala, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Nicaragua, the United States of America, and most recently,

00:13Trinidad and Tobago.

00:15It came into effect on December 7.

00:17Haiti, Jamaica, the United Kingdom, and Panama have signed on but have not ratified the agreement.

00:23The San Jose Treaty doesn't take away the sovereign rights of a country to accept or

00:27refuse entry by another country.

00:30What it does is set out the terms and conditions whereby law enforcement agencies operate in

00:35each other's waters or airspace while pursuing illicit traffic, minimizing a lot of the bureaucracy

00:41usually associated with such operations.

00:45The treaty reduces instances where foreign vessels are forced to abandon chase while

00:50pursuing vessels or aircraft suspected of illicit activities due to territorial constraints.

00:56It is premised on Article 11 which states, no party shall conduct law enforcement operations

01:03to suppress illicit traffic in the waters or airspace of another party without the authorization

01:09of that other party granted pursuant to this agreement or according to its domestic legal

01:15system.

01:16A request for such operation shall be decided upon expeditiously.

01:21The authorization may be subject to directions and conditions that shall be respected by

01:26the party conducting the operations.

01:30Signatories can outline whether they have extended the application of the agreement

01:34to some or all of its internal waters directly adjacent to its territorial sea or archipelagic

01:41waters.

01:42Under the treaty, the procedure for boarding and searching suspected vessels, seizure of

01:46items and prosecution of nationals are outlined and it is highlighted that operations are

01:52to be within the parameters of the laws of the receiving country.

01:56Meanwhile, Article 22 outlines the use of force policy where force can be used on vessels

02:02only where there are no other means of resolving the situation.

02:06It must be the minimum reasonably necessary under the circumstances and a warning must

02:11be given before any use of force except in self-defense situations.

02:16Use of force is not permitted against civil aircraft in flight.

02:20TNT and other signatories can request support from each other to assist with monitoring

02:25of their waters and airspace.

02:28If there are disputes between parties, they are to be settled peacefully, including through

02:32mediation and arbitration.

02:35Signatories can withdraw from the treaty at any time, which will take effect 12 months

02:40after the notification of withdrawal is given.

02:43You can access the San Jose Treaty on the U.S. Department of State website under the

02:47Maritime and Air Counter Narcotics Agreement in Caribbean.

02:52Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.

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