This publication brings together a series of working papers that Member countries’ trade and competition authorities have considered during the past two years. They analyse issues at the interface of trade and competition.
In the run-up to the November 1999 WTO Ministerial in Seattle, this conference proceedings explored the various options towards better coherence between trade and competition policies.
The widespread move towards more market-driven models of political economy combined with the expanding internationalisation of business and commerce has led to a series of proposals for global competition rules. To date these proposals have been hotly contested. A critical issue is whether some form of international rule-making is required, or whether soft law solutions are sufficient. Competition rules may be required to combat the damage done by global cartels and to diffuse the tensions created when more than one nation seeks to regulate the same conduct. Competition rules may also be required to protect the integrity of the world trading system. International rule-making, however, presents its own problems, not the least of which is a concern with protecting national sovereignty.
Compares rule-making provisions in regional trade agreements with those of the WTO in ten specific areas: services, labour mobility, investment, competition policy, trade facilitation, government procurement, intellectual property rights, contingency protection, environment and rules of origin.
At the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, WTO members called for the launch of negotiations on disciplines relating to competition based on explicit consensus on modalities to be agreed at the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in 2003. WTO discussions since 1997 have revealed little support for ambitious multilateral action. Proponents of the WTO antitrust disciplines currently propose an agreement that is limited to "core principles"-nondiscrimination, transparency, and provisions banning "hard core" cartels. The authors argue that an agreement along such lines will create compliance costs for developing countries without addressing the anticompetitive behavior of firms located in foreign jurisdictions. To be unambiguously beneficial to low-income countries, any WTO antitrust disciplines should recognize the capacity constraints that prevail in these economies, make illegal collusive business practices by firms with international operations that raise prices in developing country markets, and require competition authorities in high-income countries to take action against firms located in their jurisdictions to defend the interests of affected developing country consumers. More generally, a case is made that traditional liberalization commitments using existing WTO fora will be the most effective means of lowering prices and increasing access to an expanded variety of goods and services.
This book offers guidelines for the upcoming discussions on reform, representing an attempt to work out conceptions for a better international competition order on the basis of the scientific approach 'law and economics'. It presents the dominant concepts of competition policy as a basis for an international competition order and formulates a synthesis. The result is a new neo-ordoliberal approach. Anti-dumping-measures are analysed of the effects on international competition and resource allocation, and alternatives and improvements are suggested. From national forms of competition policy a synthesis of international competition policies are derived. Currently reforms of the international competition order are heavily discussed and here a selection of the most important suggestions are presented, compared, and evaluated. Finally, this book offers strategies that might serve as second-best solutions, and though they may not be optimal for competition policy, they are politically feasible and an improvement on the current competition regulations. They would be a back-up in case the WTO competition regulations aren't realizable.
This research explores how multilateralism in trade has worked over the past twenty years - and provides some lessons about how it can work in the future. It describes the WTO's achievements across a number of key areas, including: strengthening the institutional foundations of the trade system; widening its membership and increasing participation; deepening trade integration through lower barriers and stronger rules; improving transparency and policy dialogue; strengthening dispute settlement; expanding cooperation with other international organizations; and enhancing public outreach. It concludes that the WTO has achieved much over its first twenty years but the success of the WTO has inevitably given rise to new challenges.
This Review of Good Practices is published as a companion volume to the OECD Policy Framework for Investment and provides analytical background material on each of the ten chapters of the Framework.
How should a state respond to competing international obligations where the patenting of life is concerned? Following the institutionalization of Intellectual Property in the world trading system under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), states face differing challenges and restraints on their freedom to develop biopatenting programmes. Through a comparative review of patenting in two key but diverging jurisdictions, Canada and the US, this book considers how states might exercise the right of self-determination in their domestic law and policy over biopatenting to promote objectives of human welfare and fair competition. Departing from existing studies, this timely and important volume offers a pragmatic two-step approach to state agency to resolve apparent conflicts between the regulatory options afforded by economic globalization and the need to forge domestic laws that reflect community values. In this approach, rich and poor countries alike are invited to assert the primacy of human rights in their industrial and cultural policies.
International Investment Perspectives is an annual report from the OECD on international investment developments. The focus of the 2005 edition is on policies affecting the investment climate.