A leading consumer advocacy organization in Barbados has thrown its weight behind the government’s planned review of corporate transfer pricing practices, a key policy move targeting the island nation’s persistent high cost of living, while pushing back against the government’s characterization of consumer protection as centered largely on conservation-focused public outreach.
On Wednesday, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kerrie Symmonds outlined the government’s dual-pronged strategy to rein in soaring living costs: cracking down on potentially abusive internal pricing among supermarket chains, paired with a national campaign to encourage household resource conservation. Transfer pricing, the practice by which connected divisions of a single corporate entity set prices for internal exchanges of goods and services, has been flagged as a hidden driver of inflated retail grocery prices in Barbados. When a single corporate group controls every step of the supply chain – from importation to distribution to retail sales – it can layer additional markups at each internal transaction, pushing final shelf prices far higher than actual market conditions would warrant.
Symmonds, who also holds senior portfolios for energy, business development and commerce, revealed that policymakers are drafting regulatory reforms that would mandate more transparent, arm’s-length pricing between related corporate entities. The goal of the reforms is to eliminate hidden “padding” in supply chain costs that is ultimately passed through to consumers.
Maureen Holder, executive chair of the Barbados Consumer Empowerment Network (BCEN), says her group recognizes the transfer pricing review as a critical step toward unpacking the structural forces driving Barbados’ high cost of living. But the organization has raised sharp concerns over how Symmonds framed the government’s overall consumer protection approach.
Holder explained that BCEN took issue with Symmonds’ announcement that the government would prioritize consumer protection through a conservation-focused public education campaign, which he asked local media to help promote. “While BCEN welcomes initiatives that encourage responsible consumption and nationwide environmental stewardship, we are concerned that this approach mischaracterises what constitutes consumer protection and risks creating confusion about the role of government in protecting consumers,” she said.
Long before the minister’s public announcement, Holder noted, BCEN has consistently argued that consumer protection is far broader than consumer education or resource conservation. She acknowledged that the government’s package includes positive measures, including the transfer pricing review and temporary relief for household electricity and fuel costs. But she emphasized the need to draw a clear line between policies that help households cope with high prices and policies that actively protect consumers from unfair market practices.
“BCEN also maintains that the cost of living cannot be addressed solely by encouraging consumers to shop differently or conserve more resources,” Holder said. “Therefore, it is prudent that the pricing environment itself also be examined.”
Holder argued that when connected companies involved in importing, wholesaling, distribution and retail exchange goods at prices that do not align with open market conditions, there is a clear public interest in mandating transparency and requiring arm’s-length transactions. Greater transparency, she said, would boost public confidence that consumers are paying prices rooted in genuine production and distribution costs, rather than unnecessary cumulative markups within integrated corporate groups.
BCEN has welcomed the government’s decision to open a national conversation on transfer pricing reform, and is calling for broad, inclusive consultation with key stakeholders – including the Fair Trading Commission, the Barbados Revenue Authority, independent consumer organizations, economists, private sector representatives and competition policy experts – before any legislative changes are enacted.
Holder reiterated that BCEN supports conservation and consumer education as valuable policy goals in their own right. Encouraging efficient use of electricity, water and fuel is unquestionably good public policy, she noted: efficient resource use cuts household expenses, reduces national import bills, and advances environmental sustainability. Similarly, long-term priorities such as promoting energy-efficient building codes and supporting a gradual transition to electric vehicles are entirely worthwhile. But, she stressed, these initiatives should not be labeled as consumer protection.
By definition, Holder explained, consumer protection exists to shield the public from unfair, deceptive, or anti-competitive business practices. This core mandate includes ensuring fair pricing, transparent commercial contracts, enforceable product safety standards, accessible dispute resolution, fair financial services, truthful advertising, and strong regulatory oversight of key markets. “Consumer education empowers consumers to make better choices. Conservation encourages behavioural change. Consumer protection, however, places legal and regulatory obligations on businesses and governments to ensure markets operate fairly,” she said. “While education is an important component of consumer protection, it cannot substitute for robust enforcement of consumer rights.”
BCEN also acknowledged the government’s recent temporary interventions to ease household financial strain, including continuing to absorb a portion of global fuel price increases through the Fuel Clause Adjustment mechanism and cutting the value-added tax rate on the first 250 kilowatt-hours of monthly residential electricity use. These measures have undoubtedly provided critical short-term relief for many households amid ongoing global energy price volatility, the group said. But it warned that temporary subsidies should not replace action to address the root structural causes of high living costs.
Long-term price affordability, Holder argued, requires competitive markets, greater end-to-end pricing transparency, effective industry regulation, and updated, comprehensive consumer protection laws. BCEN has long pushed for a modern consumer protection framework that goes beyond stopgap fiscal measures, she added.
Barbados still needs comprehensive standalone consumer protection legislation, stronger enforcement of competition policy, more robust market surveillance, and enhanced pricing transparency across all sectors that make up a large share of household spending, Holder said. As such, the proposed transfer pricing review should be folded into a much broader policy agenda focused on improving market competition, cracking down on excessive market concentration that harms consumers, increasing price transparency, and equipping regulators with the full authority they need to investigate unfair market practices.
BCEN also sees the ongoing policy process as an opportunity to improve coordination between key regulatory bodies, including the Fair Trading Commission, Barbados Revenue Authority, and Central Bank of Barbados, to strengthen market oversight and rebuild public confidence. Holder said BCEN is ready to participate constructively in all upcoming consultation processes, and remains committed to working alongside the government, regulators and the private sector to develop policies that promote competitive markets, defend consumer rights, and improve living cost affordability for all Barbadians.