Historical and legal background of

CARICOM consumer protection

In Grenada in 1989 at a meeting of the Heads of Government of CARICOM steps were taken to strengthen the integration between the member states and to move from a common market concept towards a Single Market and Economy.

In order to reach this goal by the envisaged date of December 31 in 2005 protocols for the revision of the Treaty of Chaguaramas from 1973 were developed. Protocol VIII dealt with Competition Policy, Dumping, Subsidies and Consumer Protection.

The protocol has been integrated into the Treaty of Chaguaramas and had to be enacted in the domestic law of the Member States in order to give effect to the Treaty. The revised treaty was signed by the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community on July 5 in 2001 at the Twenty-Second Meeting of the Conference in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Chapter 8 is now regulating the two separate areas of competition law and policy and consumer protection. In the regional context the recently established Community Competition Commission has responsibility for the two areas.

Countries were encouraged to comply with the standards set in the treaty under chapter 8 by the end of 2005. That goal was likely to be too ambitious. However, first steps are already taken and also Suriname is working on the implementation in the area of new rules and a new authority on competition law and furthermore, there is already a proposal for a new book 7 of the Burgerlijk Wetboek, the Civil Code, dealing also with consumer law. The Ministry of Trade and Industry is in charge of consumer protection. The consumer protection unit has been established in 2007.

First steps towards the establishment of a consumer protection agency and the enacting of consumer protection legislation are already taken.

 As a non governmental organisation the Suriname Consumentenkring is taking care of consumer protection in the country. National consumer organisations like the Suriname Consumentenkring could benefit from the synergy that will result in the exchange of information, experience and data with other national consumer organisations and the Caribbean Consumer Council.