Amid a crippling foreign exchange crisis gripping Trinidad and Tobago, the Couva/Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce has issued a formal call for a full government-led investigation into predatory pricing practices by local shipping agents and representatives of foreign ocean freight carriers. In an official public statement released Wednesday, the business advocacy group outlined growing alarm among local industry stakeholders over a expanding trend of these shipping entities billing domestic administrative and service fees exclusively in United States dollars, despite the Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TT$) holding status as the nation’s only legal tender.
The chamber clarifies that it does not dispute the standard international practice of pricing core international ocean freight charges directly paid to overseas carrier companies in US dollars, a longstanding norm aligned with global shipping industry conventions. What has triggered the chamber’s formal complaint, however, is the unlawful and exploitative extension of this practice to all domestic fees incurred within Trinidad and Tobago’s borders. These include local administrative processing fees, documentation preparation charges, delivery order fees, and manifest amendment fees, all of which the chamber says are either being invoiced in foreign currency or converted to local currency at marked-up exchange rates far above the official rate published by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago.
This unfair pricing scheme, the organization emphasizes, imposes an unnecessary and crippling additional burden on local businesses and consumers who are already navigating severe, widespread shortages of accessible foreign exchange across the country. Citing the Exchequer and Audit Act and official regulatory advisories issued by the Central Bank that prohibit unauthorized foreign currency trading and exchange outside of government-approved channels, the chamber underlines that the use of inflated, unregulated exchange rates directly violates existing national legislation. In some of the most extreme documented cases the chamber has collected, consumers and businesses are being forced to pay rates as high as TT$8 for every US dollar exchanged, a substantial markup over the bank’s official published rate.
Beyond the inflated exchange practices, the chamber also highlights the exorbitant amendment fees some shipping agents are imposing, even for corrections required due to the agents’ own errors. Documented cases reviewed by the organization show amendment fees reaching as high as US$255 for simple clerical corrections to information submitted to Trinidad and Tobago’s Customs and Excise Division, fees that are not mandated or collected by the government division itself. In other instances, agents are charging consignees for seal amendment costs required after errors or inspections that occurred while cargo was in the agents’ custody during transshipment, passing avoidable costs onto innocent domestic customers.
“These harmful practices raise urgent, fundamental questions about fairness, pricing transparency, consumer protection, and regulatory oversight across the entire domestic shipping and logistics sector,” the chamber’s statement reads. The organization has issued a formal request for urgent intervention from multiple key national bodies, including the Ministry of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, the Consumer Affairs Division, the Customs and Excise Division, and all relevant industry and trade associations.
In addition to a formal investigation, the chamber is seeking clear official guidance on three core regulatory questions: whether domestic administrative shipping fees can legally be invoiced in US dollars under national law; whether exchange rates above the official Central Bank rate are lawful for local transactions; and whether the exorbitant amendment fees currently being charged by many agents are reasonable, justified, or subject to existing regulation. The chamber stressed that while the shipping and logistics sector is a critical backbone of Trinidad and Tobago’s national economy, compliance with local laws and commitments to transparency and accountability must remain non-negotiable priorities for all operators in the space.
Local media outlet the Express attempted to secure comment from the Shipping Association of Trinidad and Tobago on the chamber’s allegations Wednesday afternoon, but had not received a response by the time of publication.