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International agreement on competition............
International agreement on competition is needed to
protect developing countries from export cartels
September 22, 2011, Geneva
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In his opening remarks to lay
out the agenda of the symposium, Frederic Jenny, Chairman,
Competition Committee, OECD, emphasised the need for
international agreement on competition to shield developing
countries from the adverse effects of export cartels in
primary product markets, for example, through an outright
ban by developed countries on export cartels based in these
countries or through a reverse antidumping agreement in the
WTO.
Jenny was speaking at the International Symposium on “Trade
in Primary Products and Competition Policy” organised by
CUTS here in Geneva today, in association with the Centre
for Economic Policy Research, and the support of the Agencie
Francaise Developpement and the European Commission under
its PEGGED programme.
The one day symposium facilitated by the World Trade
Organisation was opened by its Deputy Director General
Alejandro Jara who provided the larger context of the debate
on the interface of trade and competition policy in his
keynote address.
Ramamurti Badrinath, Director, CUTS Geneva Resource Centre,
welcomed the participants and outlined the objective of the
Symposium as enhancing the understanding about the existing
challenges in the functioning of primary product markets so
as to evolve a comprehensive economic governance regime to
address anti-competitive behaviour and other related
concerns. The symposium heard presentations and comments
from about twenty international trade and competition
experts and was attended by representatives of Geneva
country missions, international and non-governmental
organisations, and academic institutions.
The Symposium was divided into four substantive sessions,
chaired by Ambassador Tim Yeend of Australia, Guillermo
Valles, Director, Trade Division of UNCTAD, Michael Plummer,
Head Development Division of OECD, and Flavio Damico, Deputy
Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO.
Simon Evenett, Professor at the University of St. Gallen,
Switzerland spoke on the need to strengthen provisions in
the WTO against export provisions. According to him, in the
absence of such provisions, the number of export
prohibitions by countries in 2011 will soon reach the
heights witnessed in 2008.
Aradhna Agarwal, Director, CUTS presented a recent study by
CUTS that has documented the adverse impacts of export
cartels and export prohibitions on importing developing
countries. She also argued for effective international
action against export cartels including through a better
multilateral regime on competition rules.
Ramamurthi Badrinath of CUTS closed the Symposium by
outlining an agenda for future work based on the rich
discussions during the event. This will include: more
empirical work to understand the specificities of the
primary product markets, clearer and stronger advocacy with
policy makers for better policies to deal with export
cartels and export prohibitions, discussions on good and bad
practices at neutral fora, and persuading both the
governments and the private sector to refrain from indulging
in anticompetitive behavior. CUTS will continue to work with
its partners to take this agenda forward.
For more information, please contact:
Natasha Nayak,
nn2@cuts.org, +91 88909 07963
Josiane Rufener,
geneva@cuts.org, +41 227346080
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