{"id":12121,"date":"2022-03-23T10:11:10","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T10:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee"},"modified":"2022-03-23T12:10:38","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T12:10:38","slug":"arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee","title":{"rendered":"ArcelorMittal\u2019s US$800M Deal Goes to Conference Committee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. <\/strong><\/span>It has been exactly six weeks since the Liberian Senate, on February 8, voted to block the ratification of the 3rd amendment to the mineral development agreement between ArcelorMittal and the government.<\/p>\n

Along with that vote, the Senate Plenary also proposed that a conference committee, inclusive of both houses, be set up to pool together their respective recommendations on the AML 3rd revised agreement, before concurrence with the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

In a communication to Speaker Bhofal Chambers and members of the House of Representatives, read on March 22, the Senate said after scrutiny and deliberations on the bill, it had reserved concurrence but would like to ratify the bill with the provision of the affected matrix: \u201cStakeholders issues and grievances \u2014 Nimba, Bong, and Grand Bassa County \u2014 and commitment of ArcelorMittal.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate added that the affected matrix is an integral part of the 3rd amendment since it served as an agreement between the affected counties and ArcelorMittal.<\/p>\n

The Senate in its deliberations on the AML deal on February 8, raised serious concerns with the company\u2019s neglect of its commitment to honoring portions of its original MDA with the Government of Liberia, especially the restoration of infrastructure in the concession area.<\/p>\n

On February 8, Senator Varney G. Sherman, speaking on behalf of the Senate joint committee on Concessions and Investment, Lands, Mines, Energy, Environment and Natural Resources, told the Plenary: \u201cWe don\u2019t think that ArcelorMittal has complied with the expressed language of the agreement or with the intent of the parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Sherman was referring to the 2005 MDA, with specific reference to the company\u2019s mandate to rehabilitate existing infrastructure in the concession area, namely housing, health and education facilities, and other infrastructures such as electric power, water, and sanitation in the concession area.<\/p>\n

However, up to now, ArcelorMittal has neglected to fulfill the said mandate. \u201cAnd this has caused tremendous inconvenience and perhaps suffering of the people of both Grand Bassa and Nimba Counties.\u201d Sen. Sherman then described such neglect on the part of ArcelorMittal as \u201cvery disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the third revised agreement signed between the administration of President George Weah and ArcelorMittal Holdings A.G. and ArcelorMittal Holdings Liberia Limited on September 10, 2021, the government granted exclusive rights to the Yekepa to Buchanan railroad and Port of Buchanan, as captured in Article 3 of the submitted agreement.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives, having received the proposed MDA on November 24, 2021, cited Article 3, Section 3(f), entitled, \u2018The concessionaire\u2019s capacity as Railroad Operator\u2019, which gives the steel giant monopolistic control over Liberia\u2019s infrastructure assets; the port and rail infrastructure with the ability to use its exclusive rights to block other users\u2019 access to these sovereign assets.<\/p>\n

The House then recommended that the agreement allows for transparent non-discriminatory access to Liberian infrastructure assets, with appropriate oversight by the Government, consistent with other successful multi-user models and best international practice.<\/p>\n

Thus, in the spirit of continuous collaboration between the two Houses on the ratification of the US$800 million ArcelorMittal Investment deal, the Senate has proposed that a Conference Committee be set up and therefore submitted its members’ names chaired by Senator Cllr. Augustine Chea.<\/p>\n

Members of the Conference Committee are Sen. Cllr. Varney G. Sherman, Sen. Nyonblee Karnga-Lawrence, Sen. Numene R. H. Bartekwa, Sen. Simeon Taylor, Sen. Prince Moye, and Sen. Jeremiah Koung.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Plenary of the House of Representatives, through a motion from Margibi County District #2 Representative Ivar Jones, has voted to receive the Senate\u2019s communication of reserving its concurrence and mandate the Speaker to appoint the House\u2019s members to the Conference Committee.<\/p>\n

Those appointed by the Speaker to the Conference Committee on the ArcelorMittal 3rd revised MDA are Rep. Clarence Massaquoi, chairman, and Rep. Rosanna Shaack, co-chair. Members include Representatives Johnson Gwaikolo, Vincent S.T. Willie, Cllr. Kanie Wesso, Matthew Zarzar, Acarous Gray, and Joseph Somwarbi as Resource Person. The Conference Committee of the Legislature is expected to report to their separate Chambers after the Constituency Break in May 2022.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Liberia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Liberia. It has been exactly six weeks since the Liberian Senate, on February 8, voted to block the ratification of the 3rd amendment to the mineral development agreement between ArcelorMittal and the government. Along with that vote, the Senate Plenary also proposed that a conference committee, inclusive of both houses, be set up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":12120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-12121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-liberia","tag-liberia"],"yoast_head":"\nArcelorMittal\u2019s US$800M Deal Goes to Conference Committee - Liberia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It has been exactly six weeks since the Liberian Senate, on February 8, voted to block the ratification of the 3rd amend ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ArcelorMittal\u2019s US$800M Deal Goes to Conference Committee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It has been exactly six weeks since the Liberian Senate, on February 8, voted to block the ratification of the 3rd amend ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Liberia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-23T10:11:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-23T12:10:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/img-623b0e25cc002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"ArcelorMittal\u2019s US$800M Deal Goes to Conference Committee\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-23T10:11:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-23T12:10:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee\"},\"wordCount\":679,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/liberia\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/img-623b0e25cc002.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Liberia\",\"Liberia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/liberia\/all-news\/arcelormittals-us800m-deal-goes-to-conference-committee\",\"name\":\"ArcelorMittal\u2019s US$800M Deal Goes to Conference Committee - 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