CCJ Delivers Judgment in Belize’s LPG Import Showdown

A major constitutional showdown has concluded at the Caribbean Court of Justice. At the heart of it is who gets to import LPG into Belize. The government, represented by the Controller of Supplies, the Minister of Economic Development, and the Attorney General, fought to overturn a Court of Appeal ruling that said they violated the rights of four private gas companies. Those companies: Gas Tomza, Western Gas, Southern Choice Butane (Zeta Gas), and Belize Western Energy, argued that blocking them from importing LPG trampled on their constitutional rights to work and property. They didn’t win on claims of equal treatment and freedom of association, so they filed a cross-appeal on those points. The government, meanwhile, insisted the law wasn’t about shutting anyone out, it was about fixing serious problems in the LPG sector: supply insecurity, transfer pricing, poor product quality, and even smuggling. Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay told the court the reforms were meant to break up a monopoly and create a fairer, more stable system.

 

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney-at-law

“The Caribbean Court of Justice today handed down a landmark decision in favor of the government in which it upheld the legislation that introduced the National Gas Company and centralized the importation of liquid petroleum gas into the country. Prior to that legislation, the practice was that the gas companies from Central America and Mexico would import liquid petroleum gas (LPG) into the country, take it to their respective businesses and then retail it from there. Government decided some time ago to introduce the system whereby LPG would be imported by sea into the Big Creek plant, and then from there the existing liquid petroleum gas companies could go there and buy it and retail it to their existing companies. It turns out that the LPG companies made a profit on the importation of the LPG, and then, on top of that, they charged the approved regulated price to consumers on which they were, of course, making an additional profit. So they commenced a claim against the government at the High Court. They were awarded in excess of sixty million dollars. The Court of Appeal set aside that decision but remitted it to the High Court to say, “do the assessment of damages again.” The government appealed to the CCJ and today the CCJ ruled that the Court of Appeal was wrong. There was no breach of any constitutional right, there is no breach of any right to carry on the business the way they were doing it, that they had pleaded their damages wrongly, they had not proven their damages. And so, their claim was essentially dismissed.”