Ministry of Trade hosts workshop on Competition Law

DOMINICA:  The Ministry of Trade, Energy and Employment hosted a one-day workshop on Competition Law and Policy as it relates to CARIFORUM and the European Union’s Economic Partnership Agreement.
The one-day training is a Level I programme designed to raise knowledge and awareness of competition law and policy and to build capacity among stakeholders in Dominica.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Energy and Employment, Careen Prevost, addressed the workshop’s opening ceremony on Wednesday, April 27.
“This is not the first workshop that we are having in competition law and policy and the Ministry in its concerned effort to ensure sensitization on relevance to citizens has collaborated with the CSME in the past and convened a similar workshop in October 2015. The effort continues as this is a very important issue to the Ministry and we have seen the need to create an awareness of the benefits to customers and the economy of free and unfettered competition practices. This time focus will be placed on the main element of the emerging and evolving competition regimes in CARIFORUM and the relationships between the various institutions and courts of the region, where the implementation of this regimes are concerned.”
The CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC) is responsible for investigating cross border anti-competitive conduct within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.  They also promote fair competition in the CARICOM region.
Rommel Hippolyte, Research Economist at the CCC was the main facilitator for the workshop.
“Today we are hoping to expose everyone to the basics of competition law and we are hoping to get everyone to understand the role in competition law enforcement, civil society which includes consumer protection agencies as well as the media who has a very important job in reporting any business conduct that is out there that might be anticompetitive and might harm consumer welfare.”
He spoke of the importance of competition law and policy to not only consumers but businesses in the region.
“It is important because with the EPA and the closer integration between CARIFORUM and EU what happens is that there is a risk instead of national protectionist arrangements being put in place by private business enterprises that will try to prevent opportunities for us in the Caribbean within Europe. It is very important for us to know what competition law is; where we can go to make a complaint and the arrangement that the CARICOM has with the EU to try to stop any anticompetitive business conduct that might harm trade between the two regions.”
This training forms part of the 10th European Development Fund project for capacity building within CARIFORUM.