The Min­is­ter of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism has sig­nalled plans to seek Cab­i­net ap­proval for the ap­point­ment of eight ad­di­tion­al scrap met­al in­spec­tors, as a short-term mea­sure to ad­dress chal­lenges in the in­dus­try.

The pro­pos­al emerged from a meet­ing held at 10 am on De­cem­ber 17, 2025, at the Min­istry’s head of­fice at Nicholas Tow­ers, Port of Spain, in­volv­ing Min­is­ter Satyaka­ma Ma­haraj, Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary Dr Neil Go­sine, min­istry of­fi­cials, mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Scrap Iron Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion and oth­er stake­hold­ers.

Ac­cord­ing to the As­so­ci­a­tion, dis­cus­sions fo­cused on the lim­it­ed num­ber of scrap met­al in­spec­tors and the prob­lem of il­le­gal­ly op­er­at­ing scrap yards.