Competition regimes are usually analysed through legal and economic lenses, taking existing markets as given, and examining the extent to which competition is present and identifying obstacles and market failures that hinder competition and enforcement of the law. In a pioneering study, Fox and Bakhoum interrogated the competition regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa through a historical and political-economy approach, revealing those market failures deeply rooted in the colonial experience. They then examined the competition regimes of those countries in that context. In this paper, a similar approach is used to examine economies in the Caribbean Community, providing historical insights into how those societies were created by European expansion and imperialism, with the resulting market failures that persist today, making diversification and transformation of these economies very challenging. Against this grid, the competition regimes of this region are examined, and some proposals advanced for transformational strategies for Sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.
Cite as: T. Stewart, Competition Regimes in the Caribbean Community and Sub-Saharan Africa: A Comparison, Volume 1, AfJIEL, (2020), 84-159.
KEYWORDS: Competition, Caribbean, Colonialism, Markets