7-Up Project Phase-I Culmination Meeting

PHASE-I CULMINATION MEETING

7-8 September 2001, Goa, India

National Reference Group Meetings 

Kenya, 13th June 2001, Nairobi

Tanzania,15th June 2001, Dar-E-Salaam

Sri Lanka, 19th June 2001, Colombo 

Zambia, 18^th June 2001, Lusaka

Pakistan,   25^th June 2001, Islamabad    

INDIA, 27th June 2001,New Delhi

South Africa,   29th June 2001, Johannesburg

LAUNCH MEETING

7 Up Project, December 20-21, Jaipur, India

PHASE-I CULMINATION MEETING

7-8 September 2001, Goa, India

Phase-I Country Reports

Compiled Phase-I Country Reports

7-Up Project Phase-I Culmination Meeting
Goa, India, 7-8th September 2001

CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment (CUTS-CITEE) is conducting a two-year research programme titled “The 7-Up Project” for a comparative study of competition regimes of seven developing countries in the Commonwealth with the support of DFID, UK. The countries selected for the Project are: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. The Culmination Meeting of the first phase of this project, which dealt primarily with the institutional framework for enforcing competition laws in project countries, was organised at Goa, India, on 7-8th September 2001. 

Phase-I country reports prepared by the partners on the basis of the field survey done by them, were presented at the meeting. The meeting also deliberated on the compiled version of these country reports and chalked out an action plan for the second phase of the Project. 

Brief Event Report

Boost Competition Policy to Crack International Cartels

An international vitamin cartel operating in the world has ripped off consumers by millions of dollars in the developing world, but no competition authority is investigating the same. However competition authorities in the USA, Canada etc have already fined the carteling companies over a billion US dollars.

This fact came up at 1st phase culmination meeting of 7-Up Project.

Research partners presented the results of the first year of the 7-Up Project, a groundbreaking study comparing the competition regimes of India and six other developing countries of Asia and Africa: Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa. The project is being   implemented by the Jaipur-based CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment. The project is supported by the Department for International Development of the United Kingdom.

“What emerged as a very crucial recommendation, is that the consumer movements in developing countries must be strengthened if competition policy is to be implemented effectively” noted Mr Pradeep S Mehta, secretary general of CUTS. “Consumer awareness of competition issues is vital to create a vibrant national competition culture that will stimulate equitable growth”.

The Meeting launched the second phase of the project which will examine cross-border competition concerns such as international cartels and the effects of mega-mergers in developing country markets. The second phase is expected to generate valuable insight into developing country interests in relation to multilateral discussions on these issues.

International experts from various organisations such as the UNCTAD, WTO, OECD, World Bank, Consumers International, International Development Research Centre also participated as resource persons to take stock of the progress of the project and share their experiences about the subject.

“India would be the first country to support a multilateral competition arrangement that made the UNCTAD Competition Rules and Principles a binding agreement,” said Dr V S Seshadri, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce at one of the sessions on the international scenario on competition policy.

However, he rejected the EU’s thrust for multilateral competition policy at the WTO, saying it would not be in the interest of developing countries. The discussion of new issues at the WTO could only come after progress was made on implementation issues.

He said the WTO Working Group on Trade and Competition Policy was overstepping its mandate by discussing multilateral competition policy rather than establishing whether there is a concrete relationship between trade and competition policy. Before negotiating multilateral competition policy at the WTO, he said that developing countries needed to have enough experience with competition policy at the domestic level to understand its pros and cons.

Frederic Jenny, Chairman of the WTO Working Group on Trade & Competition Policy, said that the Project would facilitate much needed communication between competition authorities and trade officials on competition abuses which affect trade and vice versa. Jenny emphasised the unique role of CUTS in bridging the gap between competition officials and other stakeholders.

Emphasising the main objective of UNCTAD of a more efficient and more equitable world economy through a competition-rules-based globalisation process, Philippe Brusick, Head of Competition and Consumer Policy, UNCTAD, commended the achievements and future role of the project in strengthening the competition culture in all the project countries.

The Meeting presented the results of the first year of the Project which examined and compared the domestic competition regimes of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania. The study focused on how the differences in economic structure and policies of these countries affect their competition policy requirements.

The project revealed the importance of a vibrant consumer movement for the meaningful enforcement of competition law. However, most of the project countries lack consumer awareness of these issues.

For more information please contact  Ms Anjali Bansal

CONTACT US

CUTS Centre For International Trade, Economics & Environment (CITEE)

D–217,  Bhaskar Marg,  Bani  Park, 

Jaipur  302 016,  India,

Ph: 91.141.2282821

Fax: 91.141.2282485  

Email: citee@cuts.org