The Cari­com Com­pe­ti­tion Com­mis­sion says the pro­posed ac­qui­si­tion of Colum­bus In­ter­na­tion­al Inc by Ca­ble and Wire­less Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Plc "has the po­ten­tial to prej­u­dice trade and pre­vent, re­stricts or dis­torts com­pe­ti­tion with­in the CSME with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of cross-bor­der ef­fects."The re­gion­al agency has in­struct­ed the na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion au­thor­i­ties in Cari­com mem­ber states to do a pre­lim­i­nary ex­am­i­na­tion of the mat­ter and sub­mit find­ings with­in 30 days.

The Com­mis­sion has al­so asked telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions reg­u­la­tors to do a pre­lim­i­nary ex­am­i­na­tion of the po­ten­tial im­pact of the pro­posed ac­qui­si­tion on re­gion­al mar­kets. This is al­so to be com­plet­ed with­in 30 days.In a brief state­ment yes­ter­day, the Com­mis­sion said it is com­mit­ted to a fair and trans­par­ent process in de­ter­min­ing the mat­ter and will ad­vise of any fur­ther ac­tion once the re­quest­ed re­ports are re­ceived.

The pro­posed ac­qui­si­tion was ap­proved by Ja­maica ear­li­er this month but ap­provals are need­ed from T&T and Bar­ba­dos, as well as US an­ti-trust au­thor­i­ties and that coun­try's telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions reg­u­la­tor. The aqui­si­tion was ap­proved by CWC share­hold­ers in ear­ly De­cem­ber