A Competition Policy for the WTO

Résumé du livre

The book analyse the market implications of the proposals to impose trade rules on competition law enforcement, and pro-competitive regulation on sectors directly, particularly in telecoms and distribution services. To prevent business practices from restricting trade, governments are considering how best to develop a global framework of competition rules. Formal proposals have been made for Members of the World Trade Organisation to undertake binding commitments to ban cartels, co-operate in international law enforcement and enforce their competition laws in a non-discriminatory manner. Philip Marsden recommends that the discussion and negotiation of competition rules at the WTO focus on the problem that is most relevant to the interaction of trade and competition policy. This is the frequent allegation that competition Authorities are tolerating exclusive business arrangements that appear to exclude competitors, and foreign competitors in particular. This allegation was at the heart of the Kodak/Fuji Film trade case about access to the Japanese market, and also underlies a continuing difference of view among trade and competition Authorities ; particularly on either side of the Atlantic ; about how successful companies should be allowed to be. The Author analyses these differences through a colourful and insightful examination of how the European Commission and the American antitrust Authorities reviewed the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas and GE/ Honeywell mergers.