Competition Provisions in Trade Agreements

Name: Competition Provisions in Trade Agreements
Start: 2019-12-05
End: 2019-12-05

Best Practice Roundtables on Competition

Roundtable

Date: 5 December 2019

Read the key findings

About

The majority of trade agreements include a competition policy chapter or individual competition provisions. These cover a range of issues, such as the adoption or maintenance of competition laws, international co-operation on competition policy or the introduction of procedural safeguards.

In December 2019, the Global Forum on Competition considered the purpose and impact of these competition provisions in practice, to discuss their usefulness in broadening and strengthening the application of competition law worldwide. In addition, the session looked at the role of competition authorities in the drafting and negotiation of competition provisions in trade agreements.

This page contains all related documentation.

Key takeaways from the roundtable

Trade agreements have increased significantly over the last 30 years and have become major instruments to lower non-tariff barriers.
The most frequent competition provisions concern commitments to prohibit abuses of market power and anti-competitive agreements, commitments to ensure that SOEs and subsidies do not distort the level-playing field and provisions on international co-operation.
Trade agreements have contributed to the establishment and harmonisation of competition law in a number of countries, especially when the signatories did not have a developed competition framework.
By encouraging technical assistance programmes, trade agreements facilitate the harmonisation of competition frameworks in practice and improve co-operation among authorities.
Empirical evidence on other non-tariff measures tends to show a positive impact on trade flows and domestic value added, with important differences depending on country characteristics and the details of the measures.
Competition provisions are not subject to the dispute settlement procedures that trade agreements foresee. A new dataset shows that trade agreements envisage some enforceability mechanisms of both competition provisions and sector provisions.
Competition authorities usually have a limited role in the negotiation of trade agreements, by providing technical advice to the lead negotiators.

Read the key findings