Belize and other CARICOM states are implementing a system to support the free movement of goods, services, skills and capital within the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.
This will take place over the course of a 3 day workshop, being led by regional experts on how to supervise fair business practices and healthy competition within our CSME. Here are the highlights from day 1:
Amalia Mai, CEO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
"The objective has been to position Belize as a more active, more strategic and more outward looking partner. And we are beginning to see that vision take shape."
"Belizean produces from sugar and citrus to emerging industries such as the coconut. Market that is coming on very well across the country. We are increasingly looking beyond our borders and seeking to compete fairly and confidently across our region. But external ambition must be matched by domestic foundations. Market access alone is not enough. We must also ensure that the rules of the game at home are fair, predictable and effectively enforced. And this is why today matters. For years we have spoken about the importance of competition enforcement as part of Belize's obligations on a curriculum and as a pillar of our national development agenda."
Berisford Codd, Senior Trade Economist, MFAFT
"So the purpose of this workshop is to build some capacity among or sector regulators for the different economic sectors in Belize to allow us to better develop and position ourselves to localize a competition law for Belize. Now what that does for us, for the average Belizean, is it ensures that we have laws and regulations in place to make our markets fair, meaning to have dominant business suppliers and providers that take advantage of the market to ensure that consumers can get access to better prices, to get access to more choices, and for businesses to be encouraged to innovate much more so than they would if we have a monopoly or dominant market situation."
"All the CSME member states for the most part have their own competition framework. Belize doesn't as yet, so we are developing our framework that can then integrate with the regional framework. So for us it's really to set our national line, place get our local authority in place and start monitoring markets a lot better. I know of course everybody would recall some of the issues with the price gouging which was all the rage coming out of Covid, having your competition authority in place gives you an additional tool as a government to really monitor those markets to ensure that they're operating fairly and optimally for the benefit of the consumer but also for the benefit of the business person."
