By Darcel Choy Friday, March 12 2010

CONSUMER and Legal Affairs Minister Peter Taylor yesterday advised consumers to be demanding when they shop, adding that they should also expect and receive value for the money.

He added that such expectations will in turn generate greater competitiveness among service providers.

The minister was speaking at the start of a workshop under the promotion of Consumer Protection in the Caribbean project at the Crowne Plaza, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.

Taylor said when consumers expect more, service providers will be compelled to provide better goods and services for a clientele which would be now more sophisticated and educated. “Higher quality goods and services would foster a greater desire to expand business both regionally and internationally,” he said.

He explained that the Consumer Protection project started in 2008 with the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Consumers International and six other parties including the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

“The first workshop convened in November 2009, in Jamaica where we began the process of equipping consumer protection agencies with the requisite skills necessary to conduct in depth analysis on matters concerning and important to consumers with particular emphasis on the banking and public sectors,” he said.

Taylor also noted that by strengthening the institutional capacity of these organisations, they, in turn, will better be able to enlighten the average consumer.

“They will in turn be more aware to demand and mindful of their inherit power as consumers to gain respect of whose establishment they patronise,” he said.

The minister also pointed that the draft White Paper on consumer legislation was currently before Cabinet.

“The strengths and weaknesses of current laws and the proposals which, if implemented, effectively would provide significant protection for consumers and traders.

Greater clarity for businesses, improved enforcement powers for officials and establish the mechanisms for quick, inexpensive and final settlement of consumer disputes,” he said.