Conciliation of Conflicts of Opinion Between the North and the South on International Law Regulating Cartel

Abstract

International competition law cannot avoid considering the development-perspective of competition law since the majority of the constituents of international organizations which tried to adopt competition law experience or experienced developing market economies or least-developed economies. As the 2003 Cancun Ministerial Conference for Doha Development Agenda demonstrated, the unilateral market-oriented competition policy from the advanced countries was not welcomed in the developing countries’ context even though competition law produces legal guidelines to business activities among competing companies along with providing much benefit in increasing consumers’ welfare and efficiency. In light of the development-approach, there need to be flexible rules acknowledging exceptions to cartel regulations and assistance in operating cartel regulations in developing economies. Major aspects of international development law, e.g., differential treatment, non-reciprocity, and convention of commodity-producing and consuming countries in markets, need to be adopted by international competition law since the international competition law is currently in the initial stage and the wide gap of experiences in practice between advanced countries and developing countries cannot be regulated under a single standard. As binding international cartel law can help foster competition policy in less-competitive markets, it will support MNEs or companies from advanced countries which want to expand their market. On the other hand, it can also proffer benefits to developing countries where the level of economic development outgrows its low level and international trade occupies a growing portion of Gross Domestic Product.