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  • 3 months ago
The Private Pharmacy Retail Business Association is sounding the alarm on unfair trade practices by some members of the pharmacy sector in Trinidad and Tobago.

The association is calling on the Fair Trade Commission to take action and urging the government to modernize legislation to better guide and regulate the commission.

Tv6's Nicole M Romany reports.
Transcript
00:00President of the Private Pharmacy Retail Business Association, Glenwyn Suchit, tells the Morning Edition,
00:07the existing Fair Trade Commission is falling short and is inadequate.
00:12He explains that the complaints process is outdated and slow, stymieing justice for affected businesses
00:19and leaving the sector vulnerable to unfair trade practices.
00:24These conglomerates that we are looking at, their pockets are very deep.
00:28And we are not prepared or even interested in wasting 10, 15 years to fight this down into 2030 or 2045.
00:36The answer to this solution is a change in legislation, updating the Fair Trade Commission to a standard,
00:43as Mr. Hussain always reminds me, we at Third World want to be First World, but we're really Fourth World.
00:50Suchit says, an unfair monopoly is taking hold in Trinidad and Tobago's pharmaceutical industry,
00:56noting that currently there is a company that owns manufacturing, distribution and retail, which should not be.
01:04He adds that the Fair Trade Commission must step up and do more to address the situation.
01:11We shouldn't have to go and make a complaint and provide a 15-page list of items that we are doing
01:19and do our survey and get information on the company.
01:23The Fair Trade Commission should have legislation to act on their own, have oversight,
01:29and initiate on their own action, assessment, investigation, and punitive measures to control growing things.
01:40Meanwhile, Wazir Hussain, former president of the Pharmacy Board and current executive
01:46at the Private Pharmacy Retail Business Association, is also sounding the alarm.
01:52He says, all they want is a level playing field.
01:55He warns that unfair practices in Trinidad and Tobago's pharmaceutical sector
02:01are holding back businesses and hurting consumers,
02:04and that urgent action from the Fair Trade Commission is long overdue.
02:09What we have seen in the last year, year and a half,
02:13prices, especially from this particular distributor,
02:16is going up almost every three months
02:18because we have no oversight.
02:22And the irony of that is we talk about having an open market and all of that.
02:26Yet Great Britain has oversight on prices.
02:31There is price control to a certain extent
02:33because you have to monitor these things.
02:36Pharmaceuticals is a special commodity
02:38and it has to be treated like that.
02:41In this country, we don't.
02:43Nicole M. Romany, TV6 News.
02:46We'll see you in the next couple of weeks.
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