Trade director sides with Dominica soap manufacturers in trade dispute with Jamaica jamaicaobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jamaicaobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The fight to block mining in the ecologically sensitive Puerto Bueno Mountains on Jamaica’s northern coast is heading to the Supreme Court as residents are suing the Government and the mining company for alleged breaches of constitutional rights.
The eight claimants filed their claim in the Supreme Court on Thursday against the attorney general, the Natural Resources and Conservation Authority (NRCA), and Bengal Development Limited, the owners of the 569-acre property in St Ann.
They are also seeking a permanent injunction against mining on the property.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has been at the centre of the controversy after overturning, in his capacity as environment minister, the May 2020 decision of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) not to grant a permit for the mining of limestone because of the land’s ecological value.
Another round in the dispute over the manufacture and export of soaps within the 15-member Caricom bloc looks set to be played out in court.
Dominica Coconut Products Successors Limited, DCPS, has confirmed that it is contemplating legal action to press its claim that the duty-free importation into Jamaica of noodles or chips from which soaps are made is illegal.
A response from DCPS’s Jamaican attorneys Hylton Powell this week was non-committal on whether such action would be pursued in the commercial division of the Jamaican Supreme Court or Caribbean Court of Justice, CCJ, the regional trade court. However, correspondence seen by the