Above: Chilean President Sebastian Pinera in Paramaribo for the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting last week (Photo: CARICOM)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

CARICOM has launched an online system allowing consumers in the Caribbean to alert authorities on dangerous products they encounter in the marketplace.

The plan, dubbed the CARICOM Rapid Exchange System for Dangerous Non-Food Consumer Goods, was developed in response to reported concerns from consumer bodies in the region.

National Contact Points have been created in all 14 CARICOM member states.

The programme covers non-food consumer products like cars, electrical items, toys and a number of other products more than 13 million consumers use each year.

The plan, dubbed CARREX for short, works through an online portal giving any consumer the opportunity to alert their national contact point about an allegedly unsafe product.

CARREX, which was officially launched earlier this year, was preceded by training programmes for persons at contact points in participating countries.