The World Competition Agency as a Necessary International Institution

Abstract:     
The breeding of an international apparatus to deal with the crucial aspect of world competition policy, as it is anticipated to be finally discussed on the Cancun Ministerial Meeting of the WTO in September 2003. Should this matter be restricted to the WTO context? Is the WTO the proper venue, especially when analyzing the theme from the standpoint of Brazil and other developing countries? There should be any international institution dealing with the matter, or, for instance, an unattended system of bilateral treaties would do? Given the complexity of international, domestic, regional and Third World-specific interests, the criteria of fairness and rationality seem to advise the setting up of an international institution, entirely dedicated to competition matters. It would seem that, if such assumptions are correct, a non-trade entity should be built upon the joint experience of both pre-WTO and post Doha competition collaboration. We are not certainly proposing an international institution that should chase and prosecute the international public interest on an autonomous and cavalier fashion. On the contrary, the reality of multilateral negotiation and complex national and regional policies indicate that only a prudent entity, acting in the same, ad hoc, case-by-case basis as the international judicial courts have been hitherto acting, could be of any practical import.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 34

Keywords: World Trade Organization, Competition Policy, Doha Declaration, World Competition Agency, International Institutions, TRIMs, TRIPs, GATS, Transnational Corporations, international public interest, International Antitrust

JEL Classification: K21, K33

working papers series