Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 16 • 2nd May 2002
Members Focus On Technical Assistance At WTO Competition Policy Talks
At the first substantive post-Doha session of the WTO’s Working Group on the Interaction Between Trade and Competition Policy on 23-24 April, delegates focused primarily on technical assistance and capacity building issues. According to trade sources, some Members emphasised the importance of knowing what form such assistance might take as well as a need to focus on the implications of closer multilateral cooperation for their development policies and objectives as laid out in paragraph 24 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration.
Inter alia, the negotiating mandate on competition agreed in Doha last November provides for "enhanced technical assistance and capacity building" (para. 23) including "policy analysis and development" (para 24) and "support for progressive reinforcement of competition institutions in developing countries"(para 25). As in ongoing talks in the Working Group on Investment, explicit consensus on the structure, or ‘modalities’ of negotiations will be required at the Fifth session of the Ministerial Conference in 2003 before negotiations can begin.
Members urge country-based capacity building
According to a paper submitted by the US (WT/WGTCP/W/185; searchable at http://dosconline.wto.org/gen_search.asp), the drafting of anti-trust laws is only the first step for developing countries, and technical assistance would be needed for institution building and enforcement. The US paper pointed out that the US’ technical assistance programme centred on the development of sound competition principles and institutions taking account of distinct national conditions, as there was no single model suitable for all circumstances. A Japanese paper (WT/WGTCP/W/186) reported on the experiences of Japan and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) in technical assistance activities, also pointing to different approaches and steps towards meeting individual needs. This point was further stressed by an Egyptian submission (WT/WGTCP/W/187), which called for technical assistance to be granted on a country-by-country basis to ensure that it met the real needs of individual countries. The EC (WT/WGTCP/W/184) said that an eventual WTO agreement on competition would encourage international cooperation in this field as well as on technical assistance.
At the meeting, India laid greater stress on the importance of technical assistance with regard to Paragraph 24 of the Doha Declaration that recognises the needs of "developing and least- developed countries for enhanced support for technical assistance and capacity building…including policy analysis and development so that they may better evaluate the implications of closer multilateral cooperation for their development policies and objectives, and human and institutional development." India called for studies to be undertaken that might "quantify the benefits of multilateral cooperation" for developing countries in the area of interaction between trade and competition policy. India has long been sceptical of the need for a framework on competition policy within the WTO.
Canada (WT/WGTCP/W/183) proposed two principles regarding technical assistance: the concept of economic efficiency and the protection of competition and the competitive process, not competitors. The Canadian paper pointed out that the concept of economic efficiency supports development objectives as it encourages each jurisdiction to put its resources to their most socially-desirable uses. It also said that competition policy promotes competition, thereby enabling firms to become efficient and to offer a greater choice of products and services at competitive prices. The Canadian paper dwelt on industrial policy in the broad and narrow sense: the former referring to the full range of measures that governments employ to promote an efficient industrial structure, and the latter to a subset of economic measures designed to provide special advantages or assistance to particular industries and firms. The Canadian paper further argued that competition policy could be a key constituent of industrial policy, as — applied in its broader sense — it can strengthen incentives for continual innovation and the systemic upgrading of products and production processes.
Members that submitted national experience papers at the Working Group were Romania (W/181), Thailand (W/188) and Korea (W/189).
Discussions on technical assistance will continue at the next meeting of the Working Group, scheduled for 1-2 July. Members will then proceed to two subjects mentioned in the Doha Declaration namely, "provisions on hard-core cartels" and "modalities for voluntary cooperation".
Background
Chaired by Professor Frédéric Jenny (France), the Working Group’s mandate until the Fifth Ministerial is to focus work on "the clarification of core principles, including transparency, non- discrimination and procedural fairness, and provisions for hardcore cartels; modalities for voluntary cooperation; and support for progressive reinforcements for competition in developing countries through capacity building" (para 25).
See also related In Brief on Competition and Investment, this issue.
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