Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: 2022 Global Forum on Competition
01 December 2022
Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the OECD
Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition Distinguished delegates,
Ladies and gentlemen, Dear friends,
I want to thank Mathias Corman of the OECD for inviting me to this important forum. Mathias, it is great to coincide with you this often.
A strong UNCTAD-OECD friendship will be instrumental to meet our shared goals.
I have been asked to give a general overview of the situation the world is in, while sharing some ideas on how competition policy can help in the current context.
As you know, UNCTAD is the focal point within the United Nations System on competition issues – so today I have the privileged of coming in representation of the whole of the UN and its membership.
I will start with the context.
We all share the view that the world is in a context of cascading crises, marked by vicious cycles, cascading inequalities, and chronic instability.
The war in Ukraine. A pandemic that is still not over.
A changing climate that is hitting us harder every year.
A cost-of-living crisis which is increasing poverty and hunger at alarming speed.
Rising interest rates, which are drying up liquidity and increasing debt distress in the Global South.
And geopolitics, which is now in the driving seat of globalization. People are at the center of this cascade of crises.
People who, shock after shock, have depleted their capacity to cope with disaster.
People who are falling in record numbers into poverty, children that are losing their right to education, women that have lost their source of income, countries that are facing debt distress.
And most dramatically, people who are skipping meals – acute food insecurity has tripled in three years – from one 135 million before COVID, to almost 350 million today, according to FAO and the WFP. Heartbreakingly, over one million people are in a state of famine in six countries in the world: Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Haiti, South Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.
People are becoming increasingly disillusioned with their governments and political systems.
In all, the UN Global Crisis Response Group, of which I am part, estimate that over 1.6 billion people, in over ninety 90 countries, are currently in a state of severe vulnerability.
So, this is the context we are facing.
It is perhaps the most challenging context any of us have faced in our entire lives.
Given the magnitude of the problems, some would think that competition policy is just a drop in the ocean.
But this is a mistake.
In the current context, competition policy is more important than ever.
And for one profound and principal reason – at a time of rising fragmentation and distrust, each shock is bringing the rule-based multilateral system closer and closer to the breaking point.
Fair, sound, and robust competition policies are a key line of defence to avoid this from happening.
To safeguard our climate. To ensure future prosperity.
To build resilience in our economies and societies, to avoid the negative effects to sustainable growth and innovation of market power and sheer speculation, we need competition policy in particular, we need more and better competition policy in three key fronts:
First, in enhancing enforcement against cross-border anti-competitive practices that harm the weakest economies and the most vulnerable groups.
Here the issue of taxation is paramount. The OECD Global Tax deal must be implemented with haste.
Second, in improving international cooperation to tackle highly concentrated markets, especially in the digital economy.
UNCTAD research shows that seven platforms, in two countries, represent over 90 per cent of the market. Commissioner Vestager has shown, in the EU, the way in facing up to the digital giants. But the rest of the world is less powerful, and less capable of doing the same.
More cooperation is needed.
And third, lastly, developing countries need more support to develop their own competition policy ecosystems, using international standards where possible, so that they do not fall off the path of robust, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth.
This is an area where UNCTAD has been working intensely, for many years now. Excellencies, ladies, and gentlemen:
I hope and trust that our organizations will continue to work together, joining forces to handle more effectively the challenges that lie ahead of us at this moment.
I wish you all an engaging, productive, and most importantly – impactful – forum ahead.
Thank you.
