Towards A Consumer Protection Policy In Ghana

The Constitution of any country spells out the rights of citizens and the state policy defines the remedies. These are then reflected in the legislations, enforcement mechanisms and the administrative structures. So, one needs a clear policy statement from the government, before legislations can be enacted.

Businesses have always found ingenious ways of ripping consumers off and governments have managed to intervene by enacting laws to protect consumers. Laws to control, and punish businesses indulging in, adulteration and short weighing have existed in nearly all ancient civilisations: China, Mesopotamia, etc.

Economics propositioned that ‘the sole and end purpose of all production is consumption’ (Adam Smith). National economic planning policies, thus, aim at allocating scarce resources, as far as possible, to the satisfaction of consumers’ basic needs.

Then there is considerable logical, moral and political force in the proposition that the right person to make the decision about the allocation of resources to his or her own needs is the consumer himself or herself. In earlier times, limited choices made transactions much simpler through the barter system. Trade and the monetisation of societies and their economies were accompanied by innovation and the development of new products and their distribution channels. International trade in modern times is far from bringing perfection and fairness in the market.

Consumers’ Interest as National Interest

American President John F Kennedy moved the consumers’ bill of rights in 1962 in the US Congress saying.. “If a consumer is offered inferior products, if prices are exorbitant, if drugs are unsafe or worthless, if the consumer is unable to choose on an informed basis, then his dollar is wasted, his health and safety may be threatened and national interest suffers.”

Kennedy equated consumers’ interest with national Interest. His speech delivered on 15 March 1962 is what generated the global consumer rights. This date, 15^th March, is now observed as the World Consumer Rights Day, as well as the national consumers’ day in several countries by the global consumer protection movement.

The UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection

The United Nations Guidelines for Consumer Protection adopted by the UN General Assembly of April 1985 call upon governments to develop, strengthen and maintain a consumer policy, and provide for enhanced protection of consumers by communicating it through various means on seven major themes: 1. Physical Safety, 2. Economic Interests, 3. Standards, 4. Essential Goods and Services, 5. Redress, 6. Education and Information, and 7. Health. Implicitly it spells out what governments need to do to buttress the eight rights of consumers.

Guidelines set out and codify the main elements of consumer protection, and create an international framework within which national consumer protection policies can be worked out. They give consumer policy a clear set of objectives and provide a checklist against which governments can measure their own policies. Being guidelines, they are meant to be adopted and reviewed according to changing times, innovations and new developments such as sustainable consumption.

Even when the Guidelines were being debated in the ECOSOC during 1983-85, sections of the business community lobbied against the adoption by the UN of any Guidelines at all, as well as against specific provisions. Consequently, there were attempts by some governments to remove whole sections. The main argument put forward by business interests against the Guidelines were that they favour an interventionist approach to economic management, were hostile to private enterprise, and that the UN has no role to play in what is essentially an area of national policy.

The US government expressed reservations about the Guidelines and some of its specific provisions on Transnational Corporations (TNCs). The US successfully lobbied for the deletion of specific references to TNCs from the final text. This met the criticism of the former Soviet Union that said that the consumer protection work of the UN was “... justified only if and when it promotes the .... protection of the interests of developing countries in the realm of international economic relations and also the protection of the broad working masses in the world against the dictates of transnational corporations.”

The Guidelines were passed in April 1985 and further reviewed in 1995 after 10 years. The present Consumers International (formerly IOCU) fought for this inclusion of certain elements that protected the poor in the Third World during the review.

Consumer Rights as Human Rights

Every welfare state seeks to provide the protection of the Right to Basic Needs of consumers particularly for the have-nots. The right to basic needs is not just a consumer right, but a human right as well. Article 25 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights says: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services.” But this right has not found a place in legislations yet.

Former centrally planned economies had this as well the right to work enshrined in their constitutions, and did succeed to a large extent through appropriate state interventions. In the bargain their economies suffered through high deficits and indebtedness. Rather than create enabling mechanisms for a consumer to create opportunities for acquiring the means, the state relied on price controls and heavy subsidies. With capitalism, the poor are becoming poorer, and more needs to be done to alleviate poverty. It has, therefore, become increasingly important for the State to intervene in the demand and supply markets.

Aims of A Consumer Protection Policy

Governments are urged in the UN Guidelines to give special attention to the needs of disadvantaged consumers, in both rural and urban areas, including low-income consumers, and those with very low levels of literacy. But in addressing the basic needs of consumers it covers only three areas: pharmaceuticals, food standards and drinking water. It also addresses policies that ensure the distribution of essential goods and services, but not the entirety of basic survival needs of the ordinary consumer: food, clothing, shelter, education, health care and sanitation.

Energy and transportation are the two other areas of basic needs are not ordinarily basic to the Third World rural consumer. In several developing countries, government policies focus on ensuring food security through an effective public distribution system. In Ghana, where over 30% of the population live below the poverty line, there are no consumer policies to ensure the survival of the poor. A consumer policy and law for Ghana must ensure the survival and protection of the poor from unscrupulous businessmen who exploit their ignorance to sell them expired and hazardous food and substances.

Many countries now have a number of legislations concerning consumer issues. A Consumer Ombudsman in the form of a central body oversees all consumer protections issues with the support of consumer protection laws. It encourages complainants to use its free services for dispute resolution rather than going to a civil court.

Protecting consumers’ economic interests is as important as regulation to ensure that the goods and services are available at a reasonable price and are safe. There is a consumer dimension to almost every state policy and therefore there is a need to take consumer interest into account in all policy decisions through public consultation. Consumer policy is not only about legislation governing consumer interest nor restricted to redressing consumer complaints.

Conclusion

A Consumer policy generally is “To inform the consumer of goods and services in such a way that his purchasing decisions contribute to the functioning of competitive markets, and to protect him where his position in the market is not strong enough to allow him to play this role”. In most developing countries, problems of consumers are more related to the provision of essential services such as drinking water, sanitation, education and health care, than the market-related ones. There is sufficient political, economic, social and legal rationale for governments to adopt an integrated and holistic consumer protection policy that will guide all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) towards genuine consumer welfare.

 

Published in Public Agenda on 4th September 2006: www.ghanaweb.com/public_agenda 

Http://www.theconsumerpartnership.org