./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTCP/W/137
15 July 1999
(99-2927)
Working Group on the Interaction
between Trade and Competition PolicyOriginal:  English
COMMUNICATION FROM MAURITIUS
The following communication, dated 7 July 1999, was received from the Permanent Mission
of Mauritius with the request that it be circulated to Members.
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Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy:
Small Country Economy Perspectives
Mauritius is currently engaged in making preparations for the eventual introduction of
competition legislation within the overall context of the ongoing process of liberalization and
modernization of its economy.  It believes that this can further contribute to deepening the integration
of Mauritius in the globalization process; and in turn, Mauritius could, as well, contribute to theoverarching principle of market economy.
While doing so, Mauritius is alive to the grim fact that it suffers from a serious dearth of
institutional and technical capability.  Thus, Mauritius finds it hard to go ahead with this plan without
greater certainty about what, if any, guidance coul d be forthcoming from WTO and other international
organizations.  Our own premise in this respect is based on the lack of certainty as to whether or not
and/or how soon or how far in the near distant future , a WTO discipline is likely to evolve in the area
of competition.  This is actually derived from the state of play as it prevails now and from the amount
of work done so far in the Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy
(WGTCP).  Though, at this stage, we do recognize that the work executed by the Working Group has
been very informative and useful in explaining the theoretical and empirical linkages between trade
and competition policy.
Irrespective of the needs for institutional and capacity-building, it appears that somewhat
more specific guidance and support is still needed, particularly for the developing countries and the
small economies, who are committed to market principles but who lack experience with the
administration of competition laws and policies.  This commitment of Mauritius is more than visibleespecially if we consider that Mauritius has not only joined but also ratified the Protocols of the
following multilateral Agreements:  Basic Telecommunications, Financial Services;  it is also in the
process of acceding to the ITA.
It is our hope that the development of a possible WTO discipline preceded by voluntary
guidance and support regarding competition law and policy implementation could draw upon and help
support these liberalization efforts.  We also hope that this could sustain the momentum for deepening
the integration of Mauritius and other small economies like ours as well as the large number of
developing countries who are looking forward to ge tting well entrenched in the mainstream of the
multilateral trading system.WT/WGTCP/W/137
Page 2
As we mentioned earlier, Mauritius has had the benefit of obtaining technical assistance from
the WTO Secretariat for which we are thankful.  We are also thankful to UNCTAD for providing
technical assistance support in the area of competition law preparation and to the Commonwealth
Secretariat for providing assistance in connected areas of anti-dumping and countervailing  measures.The seriousness with which Mauritius is addressing the comprehensive package of competition policy
and legislation need to be viewed with greater interest by the international community in the context
of the International Coherence Initiatives approach.
Preparatory work is well advanced.  However, it is our view that competition law and policy
is best implemented not in isolation but as part of a package of reforms including customer protection
laws, business incorporation laws, anti-trust laws and other related measures to ensure the efficientfunctioning of the market.  It is in this direction that our efforts are now focused;  and our authorities
are indeed working in this area in its entirety.
It would appear that one of the serious constraints in several countries, including Mauritius,
that are grappling with these issues, is the administrative cost of setting up and operating the requiredinstitutions and of justifying the relative costs in light of benefits that are likely to accrue to citizens
and the economies at large.  This concern is particularly acute given the challenge of institution
building to which we have alluded earlier.
Taking account of the above challenges and constraints, we believe that the future work of
this Group could focus on the elaboration of the following:
(a) the core elements of competition policy in a developing economy context, with
particular reference to the smaller economies;
(b) practical approaches to institution-building that will economize on administrative
costs and that will permit the exploitation of synergies with other relevant market-
place institutions;
(c) promotion of coherence between competition policy and related laws/policies and
WTO disciplines and also coherence in the activities and initiatives of the
international community.  This should build on existing instruments in order to fostera greater and more effective coherence;
(d) practical approaches to cooperation and assistance in the implementation of
competition law and policy, both at regional and multilateral levels.  Perhaps, we
should use this opportune moment to salute those of our partners from the developedcountries that have provided and continue to provide technical assistance to the less
developed countries and developing countries to meet the foregoing challenges, while
maintaining national sovereignty in the countries involved.
In conclusion, we would like to emphasize that a number of useful contributions have already
been made by a number of countries.  These contributions do indeed shed important light on a number
of these questions.  We are confident that the goodwill and collective wisdom with which this Group
is impregnated does provide a strong basis for finding practical solutions to those questions which are
of vital interest to developing and small economy countries like Mauritius.
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