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Calls are in­ten­si­fy­ing for the Min­istry of Trade, In­vest­ment and Tourism to ur­gent­ly re­store the Fair Trad­ing Com­mis­sion, as econ­o­mist and for­mer chair­man Dr Ronald Ramkissoon warns that con­tin­ued de­lays are un­der­min­ing the coun­try’s busi­ness en­vi­ron­ment at a crit­i­cal junc­ture. Ramkissoon, in an in­ter­view yes­ter­day with Guardian Me­dia, cau­tioned that the ab­sence of a func­tion­ing com­mis­sion risks erod­ing in­vestor con­fi­dence and weak­en­ing the frame­work for fair com­pe­ti­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly at a time when T&T needs to strength­en its eco­nom­ic re­silience. “One would have thought the in­com­ing ad­min­is­tra­tion would have made it eas­i­er to do busi­ness when the reg­u­la­to­ry en­vi­ron­ment is not be­ing put in place.

“The reg­u­la­to­ry en­vi­ron­ment is very im­por­tant for every­one, for the com­mer­cial sec­tor as well as for the Gov­ern­ment,” he said.

His com­ments came as the min­istry for­mal­ly re­spond­ed yes­ter­day to a pre-ac­tion pro­to­col let­ter from at­tor­ney Renu­ka Sagram­s­ingh-Sook­lal, act­ing for Wen­dell Ever­s­ley and led by Se­nior Coun­sel Stu­art Young, which threat­ens ju­di­cial re­view over the fail­ure to ap­point a board to the com­mis­sion. In its re­sponse, the min­istry con­firmed that Cab­i­net agreed on Jan­u­ary 29, 2026 to ap­point five peo­ple to the com­mis­sion in keep­ing with the Fair Trad­ing Act.