A seminar yesterday, meant to brief custom brokers and importers on plans to ease lengthy delays at the commercial wharves ahead of the rushed Christmas season, served only to further anger participants, who already encountering problems, said they got no satisfactory answers.

The forum was held jointly by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) and the Port Authority of Jamaica.

It listed as its main objective the disclosure “on the arrangements in place for the clearance of cargo at the nation’s ports in the period leading up to the Christmas holidays”, noting that representatives from the wharves, Customs Department, the chamber and the port authority itself would make presentations.

But while most of the agencies were represented, the wharf operators – Kingston Wharves and APM Terminals Limited, to whom much of the blame is attributed – were noticeably absent.

“What we were looking for were solutions to the problems knowing that we are heading to the Christmas season and considering we have a large amount of containers going in to the stations,” said president of the Customs Brokers Association of Jamaica (CBAJ), Richard Minott.

“I am not satisfied with the meeting because it lacked what we need to hear, that is, solutions,” he added.

Few walked out before the meeting even came to a close in protest while many like noted custom broker and former CBAJ president, Ivanhoe Ricketts said the three-hour long meeting achieved only a small part of its objective.

“The idea was a very good and we have benefited somehow but could have benefited much more if the main players were there to deal with the issues as articulated by the invitation,” Ricketts later told the Observer.

Hendricks Porter, chairman of the CBAJ Port Operations Committee said he was disappointed with the organisation of the meeting.

“We were not able to leave there feeling that there would be any improvement at all,” Port said. “I was expecting to come here and see the wharf operators and also for us to be given some answers and some commitments that come tomorrow there would be an improvements.”

Only a day prior, the CBAJ and the Port Trailers Haulage Association (PTHA) called for the port companies to fix the problems at the wharves, saying they faced lengthy delays resulting in millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The recently-installed multi-million dollar Vacis X-ray machines – designed to bolster security at the ports – were partially blamed for the long delays.

But yesterday, the Port Authority’s assistant vice-president of security, Nick Bayliss who also spoke on behalf of APM Terminals, said the machines were only a minor part of the problem.

“The problems are not due to the x-ray machines only, they are miniscule to the delays,” he told a not-so absorbing audience.

“APM’s contract is based on productivity and it moves on average 700 containers in and out everyday,” said Bayliss who was obviously offended.

He noted that the clogging of the terminal by empty containers were also adding to the problem.

“Twenty to 30 per cent of our capacity are empties and we are currently in the process of (making more) space (for) the empties,” he explained.