Against Principled Antitrust
52 Pages Posted: 21 Mar 2003
Abstract
Competition policy is on the WTO agenda for the Doha Round, but it is unlikely that it will result in any substantive international standards; the goal, instead, seems to be to agree on core principles to guide the development of national law, including transparency, non-discrimination, and procedural fairness, perhaps extending to special and differential treatment for developing countries. While there is much to commend these principles, this paper takes a deliberately contrarian view, arguing that core principles are not at all where WTO competition policy should begin. It further disputes the appropriateness of applying an emerging meta-principle of the WTO constitution, that of bargaining for a "single undertaking," to competition policy. If antitrust is to be pursued globally, it should be addressed by principles and through negotiations tailored to its distinctive needs.
Keywords: treaties, international law, antitrust, competition, WTO
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Economic Development, Competition Policy, and the World Trade Organization
-
Competition Policy, Developing Countries and the WTO
By Bernard Hoekman and Peter Holmes
-
Competition Policy, Developing Countries, and the World Trade Organization
By Bernard Hoekman and Peter S. Holmes
-
The Trips Agreement Without a Competition Agreement?
By Thomas Cottier and Ingo Meitinger
-
International Cooperation on Domestic Policies: Lessons from the WTO Competition Policy Debate
By Bernard Hoekman and Kamal Saggi
-
The Ecology of Antitrust: Preconditions for Competition Law Enforcement in Developing Countries
By Michal Gal
-
Policy Formulation, Implementation and Feedback in EU Merger Control
By Eric J. Shea and Raj S. Chari