(Trinidad Express) The Government is currently facing a US$100 million claim in the United States from the minority shareholder of the US$400 million Alutrint smelter plant—Venezuelan company Sural—as a consequence of the People’s Partnership administration’s decision to cancel the smelter plant, Opposi-tion Leader Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday. He was speaking at a news conference at his Charles Street, Port of Spain, office. Rowley said the Government, which was heavily contracted on this smelter plant, cancelled the contract “with great fanfare, but failed to tell the population what the consequences of the cancellation of the plant were”.
Alutrint was a project in which the Government was majority shareholder and Sural, a Venezuelan company, was the minority shareholder, Rowley said.
He said the minority shareholder had always maintained its interest was prejudiced by the Government’s action.
“This office has been advised that the minority shareholder in the Alutrint plant … is currently exercising its right under the contract to arbitration wherein it is making substantial claims against the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for its arbitrary cancellation of that contract. My information is that this arbitration is taking place in the United States and that the claims being made are well upwards of US$100 million, being prosecuted by high-quality lawyers of the minority shareholder.
