Legislators on the Committee of Trade, Tourism and Industry are mooting Consumer Protection and Competition bills to shield consumers and traders from deceptive and unfair trade practices.
While meeting officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industries and Cooperatives led by State Minister for Industries, Hon David Bahati and State Minister for Cooperatives, Hon Frederick Ngobi Gume over the Budget Framework Paper for FY 2022/23 on Wednesday, 19 January 2022, the MPs tasked the Ministry to fast-track the two critical bills to protect consumers from substandard products and facilitate smooth trade by protecting traders or companies from an unnecessary competition.
The Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry, Hon Francis Mwijukye demanded that the Ministry of Trade speeds up the process of drafting the two trade bills. He however, expressed fears that good laws are passed but not implemented despite the line ministers providing certificates of financial implication.
“What happened to the Consumer Protection Bill? We now have many fake products on the market some of which are certified by UNBS. We need to push for this legislation to protect our people from consuming harmful products,” Mwijukye said.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Parliament of the Republic of Uganda.
