Prime Minister Dean Barrow says he has held talks with the president of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Michael de la Bastide, amidst mounting concerns over  threats to the court's existence.

The CCJ was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region's final court.

However, while Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries have signed on to the original jurisdiction of the court that serves as an international tribunal to interpret the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs Caricom, only Barbados, Guyana  and Belize are signatories to the appellate jurisdiction of the Port of Spain-based court.

Last weekend in a three-page statement, former Jamaica prime minister PJ Patterson, former Caribbean Community (Caricom) secretary general Alister McIntyre, former Commonwealth secretary general Sir Shridath Ramphal, Dominica's President Nicholas Liverpool and University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor Sir George Alleyne, warned that issues have arisen in Trinidad and Tobago "which could threaten the very existence of the CCJ".

Barrow, who is the Caricom leader "with the most direct responsibility for the court", said if the CCJ were to be removed from Port of Spain, it would be "very disruptive" for the region.

"I think that the new Government there could be contemplating the possibility of asking the Community to take the court elsewhere. Now, I want to stress, as far as I understand, this is just a matter of a media report. I don't know that any official position has been taken by the new Government of Trinidad and Tobago but the press report was worrying enough for President de la Bastide to discuss the matter with me since I am the Caricom head with the most direct responsibility for the court."

Barrow added, "I don't think we ought to get carried away because there is nothing, I repeat, that's official from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago suggesting that it is even contemplating such a move," he added.

—CMC