WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTCP/W/161
20 March 2001
(01-1364)
Working Group on the Interaction
between Trade and Competition PolicyOriginal:  English
COMMUNICATION FROM ROMANIA
The following communication, dated 16 March 2001, has been received from the Permanent
Delegation of Romania with the request that it be circulated to Members.
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International Cooperation on Competition Policy within WTO Auspices
Competition law is essential for developing the market economy, for strengthening the private
sector as an engine of growth and development and for prohibiting any restrictive practices by
undertakings, which may be shaped as agreements or abuse of dominant position.  The competitionlaw's objectives can be observed only if the national legislation covers all anti-competitive practices
which affect the national market.  Having in view the globalization process and the fact that
undertakings are more and more involved in international operations, the competition authorities are
to have the power to ask these undertakings operating on various markets to observe their national
competition laws.
The necessity to develop antitrust laws covering international cases and establishing
extraterritorial competencies is becoming a major issue also for developing countries and fortransition countries in the Central and Eastern Europe.  In the competition area, the cooperation
relations between developed countries such as the United States and the European Community and its
member States should serve as an example when trying to set the basis of the cooperation relations
between developing countries.  Consequently, wh en applying the competition law, the objectives
followed by the national competition laws should be established and the difficulties entailed by theexertion of extraterritorial competencies should be assessed.
Anti-competitive practices imposing international cooperation
When analyzing the way in which a multilatera l framework for cooperation in the competition
area is to be designed, the variety of anti-competitive practices affecting more than one country is to
be considered.  To this end, the following main types of anti-competitive practices with impact on theinternational market have to be taken into account:
− Anti-competitive practices with a similar impact on several markets and on world markets ,
such as international cartels which may affect the trade of developing countries through price
and/or quantity fixing and market allocation among few multinational companies;
− Anti-competitive practices affecting market access , such as import cartels, abuses of dominant
position, certain forms of vertical agreements, cases in which under general jurisdictionWT/WGTCP/W/161
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principles, only the importing country would normally be in a position to apply its
competition law;
− Anti-competitive practices whose effect is primarily in a different market from that in which it
was conceived , such as export cartels which may involve multinational companies abusing
their dominant position or undertaking other anti-competitive practices, particularly whensuch practice is implemented in a developing country.
In order to address such anti-competitive practices  in an effective manner, there is a need for
both enforcement of domestic competition policy and for enhanced international cooperation at
bilateral, regional and multilateral levels.
Advantages of a multilateral framework on competition policy
An important element to be considered for taking part in a multilateral framework on
competition policy would be the existence in the developing and other countries of competition
policies and effective competition authorities having a well-suited institutional capacity.  Since the
reality confirms that competition agencies within su ch countries face difficulties in enforcing the
competition policies and especially in dealing with complex cases having international dimensions, a
multilateral cooperation forum would offer the opportunity to get in touch with more experiencedcountries and to benefit from their experience.
A multilateral framework on competition policy would have to be characterized by:
− progressivity  in any commitment relating to the introduction of a domestic competition law
regime;
− flexibility  as regards the diversity of national approaches to competition law and policy,
taking into account the differences in both the competition laws of WTO Members and in the
institutional procedures for the enforcement of such laws.
WTO fundamental principles of transparency and non-discrimination  are also to be the basis
for a multilateral framework on competition policy.
A multilateral framework in the competition area would aim at ensuring that the developing
countries and their competition agencies could benefit from cooperation relations within this
framework.
Cooperation benefits in fighting against restrictive business practices could be obtained
through several modalities such as:
− availability of information on cases involving anti-competitive practices;
− consultations among competition agencies in order to better address anti-competitive
practices of common concern and to manage the jurisdictional conflicts (application of comityprinciples);
− new procedures for the exchange of national experience and perspectives on competition
policy (such as peer review).  As for the exchange of national experience among the national
competition agencies, particular attention should be given to the exchange of confidentialinformation.WT/WGTCP/W/161
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On the other hand, a multilateral competition framework could play an active role in
enhancing the results of technical assistance on competition issues (i.e. assistance for drafting
competition laws, strengthening the institutional capaci ties to deal with complex cases, etc).  Within
this framework, the technical assistance programmes could be more focused on the needs of recipient
countries due to the fact that a closer cooperation among WTO Members could allow a coordinatedapproach addressing the demands of recipient countries.
The Romanian Competition Council's experien ce in the field of international cooperation
(i) Bilateral cooperation
International cooperation materialized in the participation in conferences and seminars on
competition issues within the framework of the bilateral cooperation agreements to which the
Romanian Competition Council is a party, in other workshops organized in the neighbouring
countries with whom cooperation agreements have not been concluded, and in the exchange ofinformation with competition authorities althou gh a legal framework for such cooperation did not
exist yet.
In 2000, the Competition Council has continued the cooperation with the competition
agencies from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Georgia on the basis of
the existing agreements.
Although a cooperation agreement is not concluded yet, cooperation relations with the
Monopoly Authority (within the Ministry of Economy) of Macedonia have been developed and
materialized in the participation in a conference organized by the Macedonian Monopoly Authority
with foreign assistance.
During 2000, the Competition Council has also collaborated with the Hungarian Office for
the Protection of Competition in resolving several competition cases on the tobacco market, the
cement market and the market of health care services (pharmacy services).  During the investigations
on the mentioned markets, information was exchanged also with the competition authorities of Czech
Republic, Bulgaria, Poland, Germany and Belgium.
(ii) Technical assistance programmes
The Competition Council was the recipient of assistance granted by the European
Commission and will benefit, beside the Competition Office, from the project entitled "Strengthening
the Administrative Capacity to Manage the Acquis in the Field of Competition and State Aid"
financed through 1999 PHARE budget.
Direct contacts with experts from the European Commission by participating in a series of
annual conferences on competition policy for associated countries, organized by DG Competition,
allowed the exchange of experience and addressed various competition issues of mutual concern.
The Council also benefited from technical assistance granted by the United States
Government through the United States Agency for International Development that consisted of long-
term and short-term missions from the U.S. Fe deral Trade Commission and U.S. Department of
Justice.  At present, a special advisor from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission assists the Council
staff in dealing with competition cases.
Within the multilateral assistance programme granted by OECD to Central and Eastern
Europe countries, the Competition Council experts benefited from a series of seminars focused onWT/WGTCP/W/161
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various topics such as abuse of dominant position, vertical agreements, mergers, horizontal
agreements, the interface between competition and economic regulation, de-monopolization.
A multilateral framework in the competition area within WTO auspices would be an effective
tool for promoting a competition culture, for gene rating benefits in terms of exchange of experience
for developing countries having in view that trade and investment policies are complementary to thecompetition policy, and for addressing complex competition cases having international impact.
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