Smith trashes Trade Commission, says it was an overkill

Trade Minister Lorna Smith has defended the government’s decision to shelve the long-delayed Trade Commission, arguing that the proposed statutory body was an expensive and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.

Speaking on the Consumer Protection Amendment Bill, 2026, Smith said the Commission — originally championed under the previous National Democratic Party (NDP) administration — looked attractive at first glance but became far less convincing under closer review.

“At first blush, the fledgling Trade Commission appeared to be quite priceless,” Smith told the House. “As I engaged more deeply with the commission, it increasingly felt like overkill.”

The Virgin Islands Trade Commission Act was passed in 2020 and formally brought into force in late 2022, with the commission envisioned as a statutory body overseeing trade, investment, business regulation and consumer affairs.  But after the VIP administration took office in 2023, it suspended implementation, saying more work was needed to determine whether the model made sense.

Too costly

Smith said one of the biggest concerns was cost.

According to her, the commission projected operational expenses of roughly $1.5 million, with nearly another $1 million in projected revenue requirements. She said making the body financially self-sufficient would have required dramatic increases in trade licence fees.

“In order to achieve this financial independence in year two, it would have required a 154 percent increase in trade licence fees,” Smith said.

She also took issue with proposals that would have seen some non-belonger business licence fees climb as high as $15,000 annually.

For Smith, the bigger issue was duplication.

She argued that once government created the Ministry of Financial Services, Economic Development, and Digital Transformation, there was little justification for creating a separate independent agency to perform similar functions.

“That seemed to be the appropriate place for all matters related to trade and business to sit in, rather than pressing forward with an independent Trade Commission,” she said.

A different path

Instead of reviving the commission, Smith said the government has chosen a different path. Under the alternative model, core trade functions will remain directly under the ministry, including oversight of micro, small and medium-sized businesses, business licence approvals, the National Business Bureau, and training programmes aimed at helping entrepreneurs improve marketing, business planning and customer service.

The administration’s new focus will be a trade and investment promotion agency operating through a public-private partnership model. Smith said this structure would allow the government to retain strategic oversight while giving the agency some operational independence, similar to investment promotion agencies elsewhere in the region.

The government’s decision to kill the proposed Trade Commission is politically notable because Opposition Leader Marlon Penn has previously pressed government over the suspension, arguing the Trade Commission was intended to modernise trade regulation and strengthen consumer protection.