Consumer Policy for Trinidad and Tobago
INTRODUCTION
THE CONSUMER AND THE ECONOMY
While consumer protection has long been an established practice in Trinidad and Tobago, the articulation of a consumer policy is relatively recent. It has emerged in response to the perceived abuses of some business persons and the inadequacy of information on the part of consumers arising from an increase in the abundance and complexity of goods and services made available by an ever widening market. Although such a market offers certain advantages, the consumer is 110 longer able to protect himself/herself effectively.
As market conditions have changed, the balance between suppliers and consumers has tended to become weighted in favour of the supplier. The discovery of new materials, the introduction of new methods of manufacture, the development of varied means of communication, the expansion of markets and new methods of retailing are all factors which have had tile effect of increasing the supply and demand of an immense variety of goods and services.
The consumer, who, in the past, was usually an individual purchaser in a small local market, has become merely a unit in a mass market, the target of advertising campaigns and of pressure by strongly organized production and distribution groups. Producers and distributors often have a greater opportunity to determine market conditions than the consumer.
The recent move by this country towards Trade Liberalisation, the establishment of large trading blocks in the world, and more specifically, the increased promotion of intra-regional trade within CARICOM, will result in trade practices which would impact directly on consumers.
Trade practices, contractual items, consumer credit and the very concept of competition itself have all changed and accentuated the above-mentioned imbalances. This has created a greater need to keep consumers better informed of their rights and to protect them against any tendency to abuses which might arise from such practices. Additionally, mergers, price fixing, cartels and monopolies have adversely affected the consumers' economic interests.
In order to correct the imbalance of power between suppliers of goods and services and consumers, increasingly detailed information is needed. Such information would enable consumers to make better use of their resources, to have a freer choice between the various products and services offered, and to influence prices, service and product quality and market trends.
It is against this background, that this policy document is being promulgated by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. It covers inter alia suggested consumer protection legislation, institutional strengthening, consumer education and regional an international cooperation in consumerism. Special care will be taken to ensure that measures for consumer protection are implemented for the benefit of all sectors of the population, particularly the rural population, the low income, disabled, the youth, the elderly, the unsuspecting and vulnerable.
A policy is a dynamic instrument and consideration must therefore be given, at the very beginning, as to how the policy will gain legitimacy among those for whom it is intended, and to the kind of mechanisms appropriate for monitoring, assessing, revising and modifying the policy.
This can best be successfully accomplished through on-going consultation with consumers. The policy document should therefore affirm the policy makers' commitment to the process of consultation.
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