The Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy meets in Geneva from 2 to 4 July, under UNCTAD auspices, to discuss cooperation regarding merger control and the interface between competition policy and intellectual property rights.
The European Commissioner for Competition, Mario Monti, and UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero will give a press conference at 1 pm Wednesday, 4 July, in the Palais des Nations (Room XXIII) on "The links between competition policy, competitiveness and development".
Mr. Monti will be addressing the Group on that subject Wednesday morning. The European Commission is expected to provide substantial support to UNCTAD´s technical assistance programmes to enhance capacity-building in the field of competition law and policy for developing countries.
Opening the meeting this morning, Mr. Ricupero said it came "at a time when crucial decisions need to be taken by the international community on the nature, content and forum for future multilateral work" on competition. The member States of the World Trade Organization (WTO) "will decide whether and in what form they should continue to discuss or negotiate on this issue" when they meet at Doha, Qatar, this November.
Mr. Ricupero went on to say that "UNCTAD´s role is that of assisting in building a consensus...by organizing national and regional meetings to clarify competition issues, by contributing to identifying the goals and objectives of developing countries in this area, by exploring the effectiveness and complementarity of international cooperation at different levels, by clarifying the ways in which possible international agreements on competition might apply to developing countries, including through preferential or differential treatment, and by studying possible dispute mediation mechanisms and alternative arrangements".
The new chapter of the Model Law on "The relationships between a competition authority and regulatory bodies, including sectoral regulators", drafted by the UNCTAD secretariat, will be considered by the experts. This task was assigned to UNCTAD by the Fourth UN Conference to Review All Aspects of the Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices (21-25 September 2000). The Set was adopted by the General Assembly in 1980. Restrictive business practices are defined as acts or behaviour of enterprises which, through an abuse or acquisition and abuse of a dominant position of market power, limit access to markets or otherwise unduly restrain competition.
The Group will also be reviewing the following documents: Experiences gained so far with international cooperation on competition policy issues and the mechanisms used (TD/RBP/CONF.5/4); Competition policy and the exercise of intellectual property rights (TD/RBP/CONF.5/6); and an updated version of the Directory of Competition Authorities (TD/B/COM.2/CLP/18).
The meeting will be immediately followed by the WTO Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy (Geneva, 5-6 July).
The Group´s report on competition policy will contribute to the discussions to take place at the Global Competition Forum meeting of the OECD (Paris, 15-17 October).
UNCTAD is organizing three regional seminars on consumer protection (in Colombia, India and Ghana), the outcome of which will serve as input to an expert meeting on consumer interests, competition policy, competitiveness and development (Geneva, 17-19 October).
