By Kyle Garnes Project Manager, ACP TradeCom II, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

Monday, December 6, 2021 —  Advancing trade in the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union is a priority for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. In this regard, a specially funded cohort of trade and legal practitioners from the OECS region will benefit from the introduction of a short course on Competition Law. 

On Wednesday, December 1, 2021, the OECS Commission in collaboration with the University of the West Indies Shridath Ramphal Centre (UWI-SRC) and the Centre for Professional Development and Lifelong Learning (CPDLL) officially launched the short course on Competition Law. The course is being funded under the OECS – ACP TradeCom II Project and will run from 1st – 14th of December 2021. 19 practitioners will be trained across the 7 OECS Protocol Member States namely: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. 

Director General of the OECS, Dr. Didacus Jules is pleased with the progress being made to bolster the OECS trade agenda through inclusion and collaboration. Dr. Jules noted,

“Trade advancement and facilitation is essential to the establishment of the OECS Economic Union and to boosting the competitiveness of OECS Member States within the CARICOM family and globally.  Our strategic partnership with the Shirdath Ramphal Centre enables us to build capacity at several levels within the OECS to accelerate this process and we are pleased that the OECS-ACP TradeCom II Project provides us with the means to do so.“

This virtual training is expected to improve the capacity of trade and legal practitioners to effectively monitor, investigate and address issues of anti-competitive conduct within Member States, helping to improve the business environment to encourage proper business conduct and a better consumer experience in the OECS. The course is also intended to improve the skills of participants to identify possible anti-competitive conducts taking place in markets; evaluate complaints and identify those that fall under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and those that do not; gather information and evidence in support of investigations and market studies and; to engage in advocacy. 

 At the end of the virtual course, participants will have a sound understanding of the prohibitions under the Caribbean Community Competition Law and the reasons why such regulations are not only important but needed, in the micro-economies of the OECS. 

The course is being taught by Dr. Taimoon Stewart. 

About Dr. Taimoon Stewart

Dr. Taimoon Stewart is a consultant both in International Trade and in Competition Law and Policy. She has a PhD. in International Relations from the University of the West Indies (UWI). She has been working in the field of competition law and policy for the last 24 years, was the Vice President of the Negotiating Group on Competition Policy in the FTAA, and represented the Government of Trinidad and Tobago at the WTO Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy. She has done training workshops throughout the CARICOM region, has consulted for regional governments, the private sector, and the EU Commission, she currently teaches the elective in Competition Law in the LLM programme in the Faculty of Law and in the MSc in International Trade Policy and Law, both at the Cave Hill Campus of UWI. Dr Stewart’s research focuses on the relevance for developing countries, and small islands states in particular, of laws developed in mature economies, and the need to tailor the laws to the economic realities in particular states, and these concerns are reflected in her recent publications.