Assembly urges minister to amend regulations on coco-de-mer trade and export |16 October 2019

The National Assembly has requested to the Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Energy, Wallace Cosgrow, to revise Statutory Instrument (S.I) 58 of 2019.

This came after members of the National Assembly pointed out various areas which could be amended in the ‘Coco-de-Mer (Restriction on the Processing Trade and Export of unprocessed Kernel of Mature Nut) Regulations, 2019’.

Concerns were raised on the selection and appeals committee, more specifically on who will chair these committees and the power of the minister vis-à-vis the committees and selection of persons allowed to process and export of unprocessed coco-de-mer kernel.

The SI also did not state what constitute a quorum for the committees or the exact cash penalties for unlawfully processing or exporting the kernels.