International institutions in providing fair competition
Keywords:
international institutions, national regime, competition law, antimonopoly legislation, WTO, ‘hard-core’ cartelsAbstract
This paper seeks to provide a balanced discussion of the issues involved in the conclusion of a framework agreement on competition within the WTO. It argues that the issue is not whether there should be international rules on competition, but what role the WTO should play. The paper shows that bilateral, regional and plurilateral provisions on competition policy are effectively shaping the current agenda and will most likely fi ll any vacuum left should no agreement on competition be reached in the WTO. The current proposals for a framework agreement on competition are found to be relatively modest. They would not require extensive harmonisation of national policies. Obligations on core principles such as transparency, non-discrimination and co-operation seem likely to be limited to the legal (de jure) measures establishing national competition regimes and not extended to ( de facto) implementation of policies, which would be more controversial and costly. Whilst there are likely to requirements to introduce national competition regimes and substantive obligations on so called hard-core cartels, there is also a broad measure of support for the fl exible application of WTO disciplines. This fl exibility should limit the obligations and costs imposed on developing countries, at least for the foreseeable future, should competition be included on the WTO agenda. The aim of this paper is to provide a balanced assessment of the issues involved in the current policy debate on the inclusion of competition policy provisions in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The paper discusses the context within which the current debate is taking place. It points out, in particular, that there are already elements of competition policy in a range of WTO agreements. Perhaps more importantly, a growing number of bilateral, regional and plurilateral agreements now address the topic. In other words the topic of international co-operation in competition policy is already on the trade agenda.
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