Abstract

Religions and civil regulations established trade rules and organized markets. But, several economic agents still have illegal methods to reach high and rapid profits. Currently, globalization and trade liberalization influence the prices and the quality of national products. They affect the consumer satisfaction and threaten his interests. Therefor, consumer needs protection and has the right to choose, to know, to satisfy basic needs, and to live in a healthy environment.

The United Nations, in the decision N248/39 in April 1985, established the principles to protect the consumer through:

1. The adoption of safety measures.

2. The obligation of producers, distributors and sellers to respect standards and to preserve the integrity in their transactions.

3. Safety and quality assurance.

4. Encouraging and facilitating the distribution of consumer goods and basic services.

5. Enabling consumers to get their indemnities.

6. Establishing instructive programs

7. Special measures giving the priority to the consumer (health, food, water, and medicine…).

Concerning the consumer protection, several ministries are in charge to execute Syrian control system. The ministry of supply and internal commerce controls the fraud and supervises the consumer goods, particularly, foods. It controls the quality of local and imported alimentary goods, and it elaborates the standards and supervises the instructions on the packing papers. The ministry of industry decides which machines are agreed and the technical conditions of manufacturing. It controls the quality of manufactured goods. The Syrian Committee of Standards and Measures elaborates standards. The ministry of agriculture gives licenses to import the animal originated alimentary goods. It controls animal products and determines the acceptable insecticides…. The ministry of Health supervises the local and imported children foods (the substitutes of mother milk). It contributes in the treatment of food technical problems… The ministry of tourism verifies the quality of services and cleanliness in tourist sites… The ministry of local community (the governorates) verifies sanity conditions in food firms and supervises meat quality in slaughters… The ministry of finance supervises foods imported in coordination with other ministries. The ministry of economy gives import licenses of food and supervises the quality of alimentary goods prepared for export. The ministry of housing supervises the drinkable water. The committee of atomic energy supervises the radiation controls.

The idea of establishing a consumer protection association is launched in 1989. It aspires to protect consumer interests, heightens awareness of consumer, enables him to choose the appropriate goods, and defends his interests. The article shows the current activities of consumer protection association inside Arab countries and in the world.

Currently, consumer must face several challenges as the manipulated genetic foods may provokes problems (allergy…), and the consequences of the globalization. This phenomenon threatens consumers through many channels:

1. Risk of changing values, traditions, and behaviors… The most important effect is the implementation of a consumption culture.

2. Strengthening social inequality between countries, weakening the state authority (absence of references)...

3. Unemployment, Money laundering, increasing poverty, erasing the national identity…

Finally, the lecturer presents some suggestion to improve the consumer protection. He thinks that we need a new mechanism different because of the inefficiency of the current organisms. There is integration between government tasks and consumers associations. Syria needs to establish a consumer association…