BY CAROL MATROO Trinidad Guardian

Barbados' Foreign Affairs Minister Kerrie Symmonds on Monday said his Ministry knew about the existence of the 2003 Memorandum of Understanding between T&T and Venezuela, but did not know the contents.

Symmonds made the statement in Barbados' Nation newspaper, after criticisms in the media suggested the government should have informed the Bajan public of the existence of the memo before now.

"While our intelligence at Foreign Affairs indicated the MOU might have been signed, we were at the time locked in good-faith negotiations with Trinidad and we expected that if in fact such a MOU existed and had in fact been signed, Trinidad would have drawn it to our attention, as the contents would have been relevant to the negotiations taking place," Symmonds said.

He added: "To this date, despite our having formally requested the information, Trinidad hasn't said whether the MOU exists and hasn't revealed its contents....We don't know officially if it exists.

"Our intelligence suggests there is a MOU which allows T&T and Venezuela to commercially exploit the 1990 line now in dispute."

Symmonds said there was nothing his Ministry could do to get T&T's Government to "declare its hand in good faith unless the latter is prepared to do so itself."

Symmonds said they were awaiting word from T&T's Government that they were willing to put in place some arrangement for Bajan fishermen to continue to ply their trade in the disputed maritime area between the territorial waters of both states.