The CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC) continues to fortify its cooperation in
competition and consumer protection with key African counterparts. CCC is pleased to
announce that a cooperation agreement has been executed with the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Competition Authority in January 2024,
supporting an initiative previously commenced with an agreement with the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition Commission in 2023.

Supporting the broader thrust towards relationship-building between CARICOM and
Africa as exemplified in the CARICOM-Africa Summit held on 7th September 2021 under
the theme “Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening
Integration”, the CCC recognises the intrinsic value of fostering closer ties in policy and
law for competition and consumer protection. This strategic alignment with broader
regional objectives underscores the CCC’s proactive stance in contributing to the
overarching goal of fostering enhanced economic engagement between the two regions.

These cooperative initiatives hold immense potential for facilitating the exchange of
information and technical expertise between the CCC and its African counterparts. By
leveraging synergies and harnessing collective knowledge, the CCC can augment its
regulatory toolkit and bolster its capacity to address competition and consumer-related
challenges more effectively, with the potential to foster greater harmonisation and
coherence in competition and consumer policies across regions. Aligning regulatory
frameworks is paramount to minimising barriers to trade and investment as the Caribbean
Single Market and Economy (CSME) seeks to deepen its economic integration efforts.

It is important to note that the CCC has already reaped benefits from its partnership with
the COMESA Competition Commission through collaboration in the CCC’s online
competition law course, available here (Training Centre, coming soon) and consumer protection conference, June 2023,
available here.

In the spirit of intercontinental collaboration and partnership-building and the pursuit of
shared economic objectives, the CCC anticipates that competition and consumer welfare
will emerge as indispensable pillars to CSME trade and policy development through
active engagement, sharing of knowledge and experiences with these key regional
counterparts.

Nievia Ramsundar
Executive Director
CARICOM Competition Commission
5th March 2024