As the United States discovered, deregulation of the economy requires more vigorous enforcement of laws against anti-competitive practices, says Joel Klein, assistant attorney general. And as more countries open their markets and as more markets become global, he says, antitrust regulators will have to engage in more and more cross-border cooperation. This interview was conducted by USIA Economics Writer Bruce Odessey.
Competition policy encompasses all the areas of deregulating regulated segments of the economy.
In the United States we went through deregulation with surface transportation, air transportation, and other sectors. Now we're going through it with telephony. We favor less regulation, more free market competition. Antitrust is there basically to ensure that the market remains free, open, competitive, and robust. If you have only two gas stations in a town, and they have to compete with each other, that could drive down prices pretty low.