SINGING Francine, the late, lamented calypso poet, rendered a sterling number on equal rights several years ago.
Everyone deserves equal opportunity and justice, Francine sang in her warm, melodious voice.
The day before Francine’s passing, the Parliament approved legislation that would make it more challenging for the country’s some 20,000 scrap iron dealers to operate their time-worn trade.
Upon clinical analysis, there are serious concerns about whether the Scrap Metals Act would facilitate fair play and equity for its longstanding working class players.
Francine’s assertion may not hold true for our salt-of-the-earth scrap iron dealers.
The Government utilised its parliamentary majority to enact the Bill, a bureaucratic measure that places strictures, procedures, and penalties on the men and women who earn a daily bread in the industry.
The Bill was vociferously opposed by the Opposition, in particular Dr. Roodal Moonilal and Rushton Paray, for the red tape embedded in several of its 41 clauses.
The revamped law was the Government’s promised comeback after its earlier senseless ban on the trade in the midst of widespread theft of scrap iron.
Instead of insisting that criminal operators be arrested and promptly prosecuted, the Keith Rowley administration zapped the entire domestic activity, one that earns $220 million in annual exports.
The new law complicates the trade and was resisted by the Scrap Iron Dealers Association.
The legislation makes it illegal to operate out of a home even though the industry has been historically based at the residences of respective dealers.
It is more difficult to recruit family help, while inspectors would have sweeping powers, and police officers could make routine crackdowns.
Dealers must now keep detailed records for years.
There are onerous conditions for transportation, handling, and sale of scrap iron.
Breaches of the tedious and harsh law carry hefty penalties.
Several other measures indicate a lack of familiarity with the culture of the industry by the Government and its agents.
The legislation appears to have been lifted from international laws, without an appreciation of the lay of the local land and the work history of its practitioners.
The line minister has extensive authority, sparking fears by Moonilal, Paray, and others about discrimination and political victimisation in a growing industry.
Operating licences would be granted for a single year at a time, with renewal applications to be made no later than three months prior to the expiry.
Paray argued for the appointment of an industry regulator instead of delegating extensive power and responsibilities to a partisan politician.
The Government held firm to its version, which calls for inordinate paper shuffling and officialise, and which would surely frustrate scrap iron dealers.
In essence, the calls for bookkeeping are akin to a larger and more structured corporate organisation.
The legislation is even more problematic since scrap iron is a mushrooming international sector, partly as a result of climate change issues.
A properly legislated and managed sector holds vast commercial potential for local dealers.
In fact, before the Government pulled the plug earlier this year, industrious operators had grown exports by more than 200 per cent in a decade.
The global sector contributes some US $70 billion a year to the world’s GDP and is projected for continuous growth.
Ferrous and non-ferrous metal recycling emits fewer greenhouse gases, preserves natural resources, and manages energy consumption, the experts say.
The sale of recycled metal products could be a sustainable growth industry in Trinidad and Tobago’s long overdue pivot from the sagging energy field, but the Government must adopt a collaborative approach.
The ruling regime has, instead, taken an authoritarian stance, of seeking to discipline and subdue dealers with stringent measures and punitive penalties.
Hopefully, the Scrap Metals Act would bring out the best in this latent industry, but if it does not, it would be another example of governmental overreach and high-handedness.
The absence of stability in the industry would inevitably add to the jobless rate and ever-worsening poverty in a land without an assured economic future.
Francine is correct in affirming that everyone deserves fair play, justice, and equal opportunities.
But with this new governing legislation, our scrap iron dealers are not assured of such a level playing field.
