Is There a Need for Additional WTO Competition Rules Promoting Non-Discriminatory Competition Laws and Competition Institutions in WTO Members?

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of past academic proposals, as well as of the recommendations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy for negotiating international competition rules in the context of the WTO. It also points to the increasing empirical evidence of the very considerable costs imposed by international cartels on less-developed countries, often dwarfing the administrative costs of introducing a competition law and setting up an antitrust authority. According to this chapter, WTO competition rules should focus on prohibiting hard-core cartels, providing technical assistance for less-developed countries, instituting a WTO Competition Committee for peer reviews of trade-related national competition rules and policies, and continuing the clarification of trade-related competition problems in the WTO.