There is a pro­pos­al cur­rent­ly be­fore the Cab­i­net that could see a ban be­ing en­forced on the ex­por­ta­tion of scrap iron/met­al from Trinidad and To­ba­go for six months.

An­nounc­ing this dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Fitzger­ald Hinds said the au­thor­i­ties were de­ter­mined to stop the acts of theft and van­dal­ism which were con­tin­u­ing to dis­rupt the pro­vi­sion of util­i­ty ser­vices to the pop­u­lace.

He said it was on­ly on Thurs­day that Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley had in­struct­ed At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour to “con­tem­plate and for­mu­late pro­pos­als to stem this dan­ger­ous ac­tiv­i­ty that has now found it­self in­side of the scrap met­al trade.”

Point­ing to the ben­e­fits de­rived from the scrap met­al/iron in­dus­try, Hinds said those en­gaged in the sec­tor had ac­knowl­edged the pres­ence of crim­i­nal el­e­ments with­in the sec­tor.

He said the deal­ers in­di­cat­ed their will­ing­ness to be­come reg­u­lat­ed and to al­so pro­vide in­for­ma­tion to law en­force­ment about crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties. A Cab­i­net sub-com­mit­tee has been con­vened to ad­vance this mat­ter and is be­ing head­ed by Ar­mour. It in­cludes Trade and In­dus­try Min­is­ter Paula Gopee-Scoon, En­er­gy Min­is­ter Stu­art Young and Hinds.

Hinds said Ar­mour last week sub­mit­ted a note to Cab­i­net, which has since been for­ward­ed to the Fi­nance and Gen­er­al Pur­pos­es sub-com­mit­tee for Cab­i­net’s ur­gent con­sid­er­a­tion and it is ex­pect­ed that by Mon­day, out­stand­ing is­sues will be “ti­died” up as it re­lates to the pro­posed leg­isla­tive mea­sures to deal with the prob­lem.

Hinds ex­plained that any­one want­i­ng to con­tin­ue op­er­at­ing in the sec­tor would re­quire a li­cense once these changes are en­act­ed.

“Ef­fec­tive­ly, the Gov­ern­ment is propos­ing a six-month ban on the ex­por­ta­tion of old and scrap iron, in­clud­ing cop­per, in­clud­ing peo­ple’s gate, in­clud­ing the cov­ers on the drains and man­holes around the place, in­clud­ing the bar­ri­ers along the high­way…” Hinds said, adding that peo­ple in­volved in drilling and oil and gas pro­duc­tion had al­so suf­fered from this “mad­ness.”

Re­it­er­at­ing that Gov­ern­ment was pre­pared to stand up and do what is re­quired, Hinds said the in­tel­li­gence agen­cies in the coun­try were pay­ing at­ten­tion to “plots” be­ing dis­cussed in sev­er­al quar­ters.

Al­lud­ing to at­tempts by peo­ple to desta­bilise the coun­try, Hinds warned, “We urge the cit­i­zens of this coun­try, what­ev­er your cause, what­ev­er your mo­ti­va­tions, how­ev­er, you feel, you don’t have to go there.”

He added, “Come down from there. There are al­ways op­por­tu­ni­ties, whether it is through the courts or oth­er­wise, to re­solve your griev­ances. But if you choose to re­sort to dis­rupt­ing our com­mu­ni­ca­tions net­works and our wa­ter dis­tri­b­u­tion net­works to suf­fer the peo­ple of T&T, we are sworn to pro­tect against it.”