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Wieger
Koornstra chief executive officer of the Port of Port-of-Spain
at his office in the Port Administration Building, Dock
Road, Port-of-Spain on Monday. Photo: Keith Matthews
By
Raphael John Lall
Chief executive officer of the Port of Port-of-Spain (PPOS)
Wieger Koornstra, says that if foreign used car dealers
do not follow the new regulations for transporting cars
in containers, the containers will not be unloaded.
He said they would simply be sent to other ports.
Koornstra was responding on Monday to president of the Foreign
Used Car Dealers Association Inshan Ishmael, who said last
week that he would not comply with the port’s regulations
on shipping the cars.
The port administration last week said it would no longer
unload containers with cars suspended one on top of the
other from ropes and cables. The port said this was unsafe
and posed a danger to the workers who unloaded the containers.
Speaking to the Guardian at his office in the Port Administration
Building, Dock Road, Port-of-Spain, Koornstra said that
the new safety rules are not those of the PPOS but are the
laws of the country.
“It
is the new Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) instigated
by the Government for safe working practices...and these
are the rules given to us, it’s not the port’s
rules,” Koornstra said.
Koornstra said it is not safe to have four cars in one container.
He said if the number of cars per container is reduced to
three then the cost of importing each car would rise by
US$458.
Ishmael also claimed that the issue was not one of safety
but of the port refusing to pay the workers adequately for
performing high risk jobs. However, Koornstra said that
there is no place for high risk jobs on the port. He said
all jobs on the port must be done in a safe environment.
“By
principle high risk jobs are unsafe and don’t belong
here, there are no high risk jobs on the port,” he
said.
Koornstra said the previous method of un-stuffing cars in
containers increased the risk of the cars being damaged.
Ishmael had told the Guardian that the new regulations by
the PPOS would send up the price of foreign used cars and
would wipe out the used car industry which would directly
or indirectly affect the lives of 30,000 people.
Koornstra said that the port does not set out to negatively
affect the livelihood of working people.
“Our
aim is to do the operation as safely as possible guided
by OSHA, and internally,” he said.
“The
PPOS does not want to stifle any imports of any goods once
it is safe to do so handling wise” Koornstra added.
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