An­drea Perez-Sobers

Se­nior Re­porteran­drea.perez-sobers

@guardian.co.tt

Act­ing Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the Port of Port-of-Spain, Robert Ram­sub­hag, says that 27 con­tain­ers linked to Trin­ba­go Ex­press Ship­ping Inc. re­main un­claimed at the port but as­sured af­fect­ed cus­tomers that their goods will not be auc­tioned off.

Ram­sub­hag said that while the Port Au­thor­i­ty Act al­lows for the auc­tion­ing of aban­doned con­tain­ers, this sit­u­a­tion is be­ing treat­ed dif­fer­ent­ly be­cause of the hu­man im­pact.

“Un­der our Port Au­thor­i­ty Act, if con­tain­ers are aban­doned or deemed to have been aban­doned, we do have the right to auc­tion the con­tain­ers,” he ex­plained. “How­ev­er, we are very sen­si­tive to this sit­u­a­tion and can­not auc­tion them, be­cause that would mean the car­go may nev­er reach the right­ful re­cip­i­ents.”

Ram­sub­hag said that the port is hop­ing for an agree­ment be­tween the ship­ping par­ties that will al­low the goods to be re­leased “through nor­mal chan­nels” to their right­ful own­ers.

The sit­u­a­tion stems from months of tur­moil sur­round­ing Trin­ba­go Ex­press Ship­ping Inc., whose cus­tomers have been left with­out goods or re­funds since late 2024. The com­pa­ny’s lo­cal arm, Trin­ba­go Ex­press T&T Ltd., has ceased op­er­a­tions as of last month, blam­ing “mount­ing chal­lenges” tied to the non-re­lease of car­go and con­firm­ing it has cut ties with its New York af­fil­i­ate.

Checks by Guardian Me­dia found that over 500 cus­tomers are af­fect­ed by the non-de­liv­ery of items.

In New York, cus­tomers have staged protests out­side the com­pa­ny’s head of­fice, de­mand­ing their ship­ments or re­funds. Po­lice were called in to man­age the crowd. At­tempts by Guardian Me­dia to reach the com­pa­ny founder, Pamela Lind­say, went unan­swered, while calls to Ed­ward Nevins of Sealine Ship­ping in Flori­da were re­peat­ed­ly de­clined.

Among the many frus­trat­ed cus­tomers is Tania Reid Arm­strong, who said she shipped her goods from New York on Oc­to­ber 17, 2024, ex­pect­ing them by De­cem­ber. “All my per­son­al and house­hold items for my fam­i­ly and gifts from rel­a­tives abroad were in that ship­ment,” she said. “I spent about US$1,500. Every time I called, I was told, ‘Next week.’ By April, they told me my items were al­ready in Trinidad, but I nev­er got them.”

An­oth­er long-time cus­tomer, Ann Su­perville, said she lost about US$10,000 in mer­chan­dise from Ghana she in­tend­ed to sell at the Eman­ci­pa­tion event. “I for­feit­ed my $4,500 booth rental and all my prof­its. Every time I called, it was an ex­cuse. I’ve been ship­ping with them for over 20 years. This is heart­break­ing,” she said.

A third af­fect­ed cus­tomer, who on­ly want­ed to be iden­ti­fied as Mrs McMil­lan, said she shipped six items, in­clud­ing two com­mer­cial bins, in No­vem­ber 2024 and paid US$560.

“I was told they’d ar­rive in three to four weeks. Then, I learned in Feb­ru­ary that the con­tain­ers were here, but no pa­per­work was ready. The To­ba­go of­fice kept telling me to be pa­tient,” she said.

McMil­lan said she lat­er learned that over 200 cus­tomers’ ship­ments were be­ing held by Sealine Ship­ping and CMA/CGM pend­ing pay­ment dis­putes. “Peo­ple’s ba­by things, food, and med­i­cines are locked away. It’s poor peo­ple’s things,” she said. “We just want our stuff back. Please, can any­one help us?”

In­dus­try sources said the stand­off has dragged on for months as freight han­dlers press Trin­ba­go Ex­press to clear out­stand­ing bal­ances. The com­pa­ny’s Port-of-Spain and To­ba­go of­fices have both shut down, leav­ing cus­tomers with no clear an­swers.

Ram­sub­hag said the port has al­so been try­ing. “At this point in time, we have been re­lent­less in try­ing,” he said. “The port is not di­rect­ly in­volved in this mat­ter. It’s a pri­vate and com­mer­cial dis­pute be­tween the ship­ping com­pa­nies. We have ex­tend­ed our good­will to help find a so­lu­tion be­cause we re­al­ly do feel for the peo­ple af­fect­ed.”

He not­ed that the port has been re­ceiv­ing mul­ti­ple calls dai­ly from dis­traught cus­tomers. “We can­not open these con­tain­ers, as that could make us li­able for what’s owed,” he said, adding that the amount out­stand­ing “may be a lot of mon­ey.” Ram­sub­hag said the Port Au­thor­i­ty un­der­stands that “the bar­rel shop” trade is of­ten a so­cial and fam­i­ly life­line, not a com­mer­cial busi­ness. “We know these are items sent by fam­i­lies work­ing abroad for their loved ones back home,” he said. “That’s why we are treat­ing this with care.”

Ram­sub­hag said the port con­tin­ues to work with Cus­toms and oth­er stake­hold­ers to man­age the sit­u­a­tion. “Every­one is very sen­si­tive to what is hap­pen­ing,” he said. “We all want the same thing: to see this re­solved and have the car­go reach the peo­ple it be­longs to.”