CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY SECRETARIAT

Employees  may cooperate and coordinate their activties for their own reasonable protection as employees; arrangements for collective bargaining on behalf of employers or employees for the purpose for fixing terms and conditions of employment; professional associations-

The CARICOM Competition Commission may exempt activties of professional associations designed  to develop and enforce professional standards of competence reasonably necessary for the protection of the public; specific sectors or enterprises or group of enterprises.

The Revised Treaty gives the Council for Trade and Economic Development(COTED) the authority, based on development or public interest considerations, to suspend or exclude from competition rules specific sectors or enterprises or groups of enterprises an action of a Member State where exemption is requested and approved.  Anti-competitive conducts that have only a minimal effect on the Community market (De Minimis Rule).