Fickle fair trading

Instead, Valley went about “the more we liberalise, the more we will get rid of these bureaucatic structures, and competition will become the only discipline for companies.”

Government, he had added, would also deal with monopolistic pricing. This was not without irony. Past governments have presided over monopolies in flour, telecom, cement - sectors where the government has state control. It seems they have suddenly seen the light of fair trading.

For several years, successive Governments had been clearly reluctant to deregulate the telecommunications industry.

Government still has a majority shareholding interest (51percent) in the country’s then sole telecommunications provider, TSTT, with Cable and Wireless, a United Kingdom company, owning the rest.

Was the timing of last week’s passage of the Fair Trading Commission Bill, after the deregulation of the telecommunications industry had become a fait accompli, a mere coincidence? Or did Government appreciate that the spirit of the Bill, as advanced by Valley, was in conflict with the monopoly position once held by TSTT, whose once high rates have now slid dramatically because of competition ?

Meanwhile, Valley told the Senate that Government was neither against mergers nor interlocking directorship. But rather he hinted at government taking steps to ensure that any of the interlocking directorships, of which there are quite a few, do not pursue policies that are in conflict with fair trading practices.

That remains to be seen because inter-locking directorships are a staple of our financial landscape, someting the Securities Exchange Commision (SEC) has repeatedly warned about.

And what about consumers. Is it that government will now move to ensure that chicken prices are left to the dominant players or leave it to supply and demand? Consumers are aware of the sudden drop in prices when farms were attacked by the virus early this year.

In turn, the Minister should have been more specific when he emphasised that Government was against abuse of power and anti-competitive behaviour in the market place.

Government should come out and explain the rationale behind the Fair Trading Commission Bill and what Government hopes to achieve by it. Until such a time, it is just blowing its own trumpet.