Trade And Competition

Trade and competition in Global Commerce Policy

In this regard, trade and competition is: one of the new trade issues now under discussion in various international forums, but already a negotiating subject at the time of the Havana Charter. There are two main reasons for its importance. First, there is an increasing recognition that the benefits of international trade liberalization may be negated by domestic measures inimical to an open, competitive market environment. Such barriers may take the form of private anti-competitive behaviour, abuse of monopoly and dominant supplier powers or inappropriate governmental regulatory frameworks. The entries on trade policy are here. In some countries, the problem is made worse by a weak competition policy or its inadequate coverage of domestic economic activity. Second, there are issues where the use of either trade policy or competition policy could lead to differing results, depending on which policy was given priority. The most-frequently used example is that tests for action under competition laws tend to be harder to satisfy than those applying to proposed anti-dumping measures. This is true for many economies, but the two sets of laws do not necessarily try to solve the same sets of problems. The entries on trade policy are here. An exploration of the potential impact of such conflicts may assist the identification of measures needed for a smoother flow of international economic activities. The entries on trade policy are here. It is worth noting that there is a well-argued view which claims that competiton laws may not in fact be the best means to international promote competition. Some, like Ignacio De Léon, note what they see as deficiencies. First, De Léon says that the model of perfect competition and static markets underlying antitrust policy bears little resemblance to real-world competition. Second, he draws attention to the negative effect political actors face in designing and enforcing an antitrust policy. Third, he claims that antitrust policy introduces an absolute uncertainty on the transactions of economic agents because the discretionary powers of enforcing agencies cannot be submitted to judicial review effectively. The entries on trade policy in the Encyclopedia are here. Others hold that, particularly in the construction of geographic markets, the substitutability between competition and trade policies is quite limited. They suggest that the list of internationally traded products for which the market structure is competitive at both the national and international level is short indeed. The WTO Singapore Ministerial Conference established in December 1996 a Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy to examine this issue. The entries on trade policy are here. Exploratory work on trade and competition is continuing under the declaration made by the Doha Ministerial Conference. The entries on trade policy are here. A decision will be made at the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in 2003 whether to start negotiations. The Joint Group on Trade and Competition in the OECD also is doing work aimed at clarifying the relationship between trade and competition policies. See also antitrust laws, competition policy, international contestability of markets and restrictive business practices.[1]

Trade and competitionin the wold Encyclopedia

For an introductory overview on international trade policy, see this entry.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Dictionary of Trade Policy, “Trade and competition” entry (OAS)

See Also