. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTCP/W/245
28 July 2003
(03-4001)
Working Group on the Interaction between
Trade and Competition PolicyOriginal:  Spanish
COMMUNICATION FROM VENEZUELA
The following is the final text of a statement by the Permanent Mission of Venezuela at the
meeting of the Working Group held on 26 and 27 May 2003.
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I. INTRODUCTION
As mentioned by other delegations, the mandate set forth in paragraph 25 of the Doha
Ministerial Declaration refers, inter alia , to the need to clarify certain matters that were discussed at
length in the WGTCP and to take full account of the needs of developing and least-developed
countries, providing appropriate flexibility to address them.
Regardless of any benefits that the SCM Agreement could derive from a framework such as
that proposed, this delegation associates itself with the view expressed by the delegations of India,Egypt, Kenya, Cuba and China, among others, that it would hardly seem appropriate to seriously
consider launching negotiations without having sufficiently clarified beforehand some of the matters
mentioned in this Working Group's mandate.  Similarly, there are other issues in addition to those
covered by the mandate that are crucial to Venezuela as a developing country and should be properly
addressed.
On this occasion, my delegation will only be referring to a few of the issues, but it may revert
to those issues or to others in the future.
II. CORE PRINCIPLES VIS-A-VIS VOLUNTARY CO-OPERATION
The appropriateness of applying certain core principles in the case of competition and its
relationship with trade, and the benefits that could be derived from doing so, are not self-evident tothis delegation.  On the contrary, the process continues to generate new and more sophisticated
questions which merely add to the uncertainty.  While Venezuela does not expect perfect replies to all
of these questions given that any negotiations will inevitably involve a margin of uncertainty, there
are a number of doubts and concerns which absolutely must be addressed.  By contrast, the necessity
and importance of the international co-operation dimension, including the modalities for voluntary co-operation, appear obvious to us.
Specifically, as stated by other delegations that took the floor before us, the relevance of the
core principles and how they operate with respect to competition, in particular the principles of non-
discrimination and national treatment – for example, so that the developing countries can maintaincomplete flexibility, including recourse to sectoral exceptions – is unclear.
The development process is a slow, unequal and sometimes erratic process in which
competition policy may play a fundamental role at th e national level.  But when it comes to a possible
multilateral framework for competition, for example, we still have many doubts and concerns as toWT/WGTCP/W/245
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how to preserve and create policy spaces in the future for the operation of the principle of non-
discrimination in this area.  Indeed, such a framew ork might, as some of the proponents would put it,
lock WTO Members into the core principles, when in future the developing country Members may
require policy tools that are essential in the new areas of production and that may not be obvious for
our countries today.
It is supposed that in the development process, productive structures acquire increasing levels
of diversification and complexity which would alte r today's needs with respect to the needs of the
developing countries in the future.  We believe that the developing countries should maintain control
of certain trade policies and practices which, although they may not be considered competitive in the
strict sense of the word, address development objectives.  Developing countries need to preserve a
space for policies in which they can maintain tools and measures belonging to so-called "industrialpolicy", whose consistency with competition policy should be left up to each Member to determine.
III. HARDCORE CARTELS
This is not the first time that my delegation is addressing this issue, and it has so far done so
in a constructive manner.  So have other delegations that brought this issue as well as similar andrelated issues.  It seems clear that there is no consensus on a definition of this concept which takes
account of the legitimate interests of WTO Members and of the developing countries in particular.
It is essential that the definition of this concept should take account, inter alia , of alliances for
the purposes of achieving economies of scale between small and medium enterprises in thedeveloping countries, for example with respect to import-related activities.
But regardless of any definition that may be reached in this respect, none of the rules and
disciplines of a possible competition framework should affect the inter-governmental agreements and
the restrictive trade practices resulting from those agreements, as proposed in the set of competitionrules of the United Nations.  Venezuela has a very strong interest in this respect, based not only on
development considerations and strategic considerations relating to its national development, but also
on economic and market considerations.  Indeed, Venezuela does not think that commodities can be
left to the free play of market forces, since they are frequently subject to phenomena such as volatility
and seasonality which require active State participation, particularly when the stabilization of
commodity prices is linked to legitimate development objectives, such as diversification of
production, support for depressed regions and sustainable development.
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