PRESIDENT VARELA IMPLEMENTS EMERGENCY PRICE CONTROL Traders abided the provisions issued by the Executive Decree 165. From this July 7, it began to govern the emergency control of prices of 22 products from the basic food basket, which was approved by the Executive Decree No. 165 of July 1st, 2014, by the president of the Republic, Juan Carlos Varela Rodríguez, along with his cabinet. The measure began to be implemented in an official at national level, with the exception of the province of Darien and the island territory. The check tour started in supermarkets in the area of Panama Este, by the authorities, headed by the prime representative of the nation, Juan Carlos Varela, Jorge Arango, minister from the MIDA, Meliton Arrocha, minister from the MICI, Pedro Meilan from ACODECO and a working team to support this first inspection. Jorge Arango, Minister of Agricultural Development, stated that this is the first step that controls the speculation in the family’s basic basket after a study defined with they will get the indicators of the steps to follow in the regulation and control of price. The Authority of Consumer Protection and Competition Defender (ACODECO), will be the watchdog that will remain vigilant and apply sanctions to the economic agents who violate the provisions, with fines of up to 10,000 dollars, according to informed Pedro Meilan, general director of ACODECO, who in turn asked the citizenry to denounce the shops that refuse to comply with the control of prices. During the first pass, the president Varela assured that traders abided the provisions issued by the Executive Decree that regulates the price of the 22 products.