WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTCP/W/188
29 May 2002
(02-2941)
Working Group on the Interaction
between Trade and Competition PolicyOriginal:  English
COMMUNICATION FROM THAILAND
The following is the final text of a paper received from the Permanent Mission of Thailand
which was circulated as an advance copy for the Working Group's meeting of 23-24 April 2002.
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TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ON COMPETITION POLICY
Past Experiences
1. The Trade Competition Act B.E. 2542 (A.D. 1999) was passed in late 1999 and came into
effect on April 2000, along with the Prices of G oods and Services Act B.E. 2542.  These two laws
replaced the former Price Fixing and Anti-Monopol y Act B.E. 2522 (A.D. 1979), which contained
limited substantive provisions against anti-competitive practices.  Fifteen commissioners were
appointed.  The Office of Trade Competition Commission currently resides within the Department of
Internal Trade, the Ministry of Commerce.  As a relatively nascent body with an unfamiliar mandate,
the Commission has yet to develop proper working procedures to ensure transparent and fair process.
2. Since its inauguration, the Commission has considered two competition cases.  These include
the case on excessive pricing of a cable television monopoly and a tied-sale case, whereby a near-monopoly whisky producer was alleged of tying the sale  of beer with that of whisky.  No charges
were taken either case.  In the case of the cable monopoly, since cable charges are subject to approval
by the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand (MCOT), the  state-owned enterprise
responsible for granting cable television concessions, the Commission had requested the MCOT to
review the charges.  As for the tied-sale case, the Commission found that there are evidences of abuseof dominance.  However, since the definition of "market dominance" has not yet been established, it is
not possible to enforce section 25 of the law, which deals with abuse of dominance.
3. The Department of Internal Trade, being the Office of Trade Competition, is faced with
numerous limitations and challenges, be they institutional, procedural, legal or financial.  The
Department also faces severe shortages of skilled personnel in terms of both technical knowledge andpractical know-how.  The existing staff is more familiar with price control mechanisms rather than
those aimed at preventing and regulating anti-competitive practices that require not only technical
knowledge, but also investigative skills.
4. On the legal front, the definition for "abuse of dominance" has yet to be determined so that
section 25 of the law, which deals with abuse of dominance, can become functional.  The World Bankhas provided technical assistance in drawing up a draft implementing rules and regulations that has
already been translated into the local language.  The draft serves as a basis from which proper rules
and regulations that are consistent with the local legal, institutional and economic environment can be
developed.WT/WGTCP/W/188
Page 2
5. The Office is also deprived of much-needed funds for staff re-training, public relations and
investigative activities that require intensive data collection and analysis.  As a small part of the
Department of Internal Trade that is responsible fo r multiple tasks, including agricultural trade, its
importance is often overlooked.  So far, the Office has had to rely mainly on foreign assistance for
training.
6. Fortunately, the Office is endowed with a highly enthusiastic group of staff which is ready to
embrace the competition law and see its full effects come into force.  Several staff have had "on-the-
job training" overseas through bilateral channels.  Several training sessions have also been made
available locally by the World Bank and through bilateral technical assistance, such as that from the
Canadian International Development Agency.  However, a tremendous amount of technical assistance
and capacity building will still be required over the next several years.
Capacity building and technical assistance needs:
7. The Department of Internal Trade has been in co-operation with various competition
authorities in sending operational staff for training and participating in seminars.  The Department
also co-operated with Japan in organizing the APEC/PFP Training Program on Competition Policy
during the year 1997-2001.
8. While bilateral and regional technical assistance and capacity building have been most useful
in obtaining specific skills and specialized knowledge in competition policy, we believe that future
technical assistance and capacity building programs should:
(a) involve long term commitments  – i.e. two to five years in order to be able to be
sufficiently involved in the "implementation" process, where major hurdles are likelyto emerge.  One-shot programs that last several days are normally ineffective since
they present major concepts or ideas that are not easily practiced in a different
environment with different constraints;
(b) be specifically tailored to local needs and the local environment in local language .
It is best that foreign donors seek partnership with qualified local institutions indesigning and organizing the programs.  Essential documents should be translated
into local language for future references when funding is available;
(c) be sufficiently flexible  to allow the targeted recipient to design its own programs.  A
"competition fund"
1 may be established to finance locally initiated projects that help
advocate competition (research on competition issues, design and set up of a local
competition website, publication and dissemination of competition-related literature,
etc.);
(d) focus more on building institutional knowledge , which involves the transfer of
know-how in training - i.e. "training the trainers" - and in building an efficient
documentation system;
(e) include transfers of practical know-how , such as investigative techniques.
9. The area that is in most urgent need of overseas technical assistance is the design of
transparent and fair procedures , which constitute one of the key elements of the core principles
that the WTO hopes to establish.  Since the Trade Competition Act is relatively silent on these crucial
matters, the Committee and the Office need to voluntarily establish their own rules and guidelines for
                                                     
1 The local government may also help contribute to the fund to show its genuine commitment to
promote competition policy.WT/WGTCP/W/188
Page 3
both rule-making and adjudicative procedures to ensure a transparent and fair process.  At the
minimum, rules and guidelines regarding classification and disclosure of documents, conflict-of-
interests, public hearing, opinions soliciting, information gathering and notification to concerned
parties should be addressed.
10. To ensure consistency in the competition regime across different sectors of the economy, we
believe that technical assistance and capacity building programs should extend also to sector-specific
regulatory bodies .  These include, for example, the Bank of Thailand, the National
Telecommunications Commission and the National Broadcasting Commission.
11. While assistance in technical and practical skills related to the enforcement of the competition
and policy is undeniably essential, we also believe that assistance in building " public awareness " on
this relatively complex subject is equivalently important.  That is, future programs should target at a
wider and diversified constituency as elaborated below.
12. In this connection, capacity building programs need to be decentralized in terms of
geography.  In the past, activities are normally concentrated exclusively in the capital city, where
most people are already relatively informed and where competition flourishes due to the sheer size of
the market.  Little efforts have been placed in raising public awareness among  provincial business
and consumers communities  that are more prone to anti-competitive abuses.
13. Furthermore, assistance programs and activities should aim at building a competition
constituency not only at the government level, but also at the grass root level.  It is necessary to have
training and capacity building programs that target civil organizations , in particular consumer
organizations as well as the media.  It is imperative that these organizations recognize that
competition policy is about consumer protection and that it is in the country’s interest to enforce the
law.  Financial assistance should be made directly to these organizations when possible or through a
reputable and qualified local non-government, not-for-profit or academic institutions.  One should not
forget that ultimately, it is the people - not a few public officials - that will dictate the fate of
competition policy in the WTO.  Indeed, building such a wide constituency may require significantly
greater resources, time and effort, but it can assure a smoother passage towards establishingmultilateral cooperation in competition policy.
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