Deliverables and pledges under Ethiopian Trade Competition Law: the need for private sector empowerment and enablement

Abstract

This article examines whether Ethiopia’s Trade Competition and Consumer Protection Proclamation enacted in 2014 can deliver its pledges toward ensuring fair trade practices. Trade competition envisages viable competitors in the context equal opportunities in operation and access to factors of production of goods and services. It is under such setting that the production and distribution of goods and services can match the level of consumer demand and choice (in kind, quantity, quality and price) envisaged in the law. On the contrary, private economic actors cannot be protected from unfair business practices in the context of pressures from non-private sector economic hegemony and politically affiliated oligopolistic entities. It is argued that a broad-based private sector and its enablement including the need to address gaps in Ethiopia’s land laws, an enhanced autonomy of the Trade Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (TCCPA) in the context of good governance (which includes rule of law and independent judiciary), representation of stakeholders in the Authority, and the empowerment of civil society organizations are crucial to deliver the pledges embodied in Ethiopia’s competition law. Keywords: Trade competition, consumer welfare, private sector empowerment, land policy, oligopolistic pressures, Ethiopia