Competition Law/Policy and the Multilateral Trading System: A Possible Agenda for the Future

Important synergies or complementarities exist between trade liberalization initiatives and the application of measures to suppress anti-competitive practices or arrangements. In fact, both anti-competitive practices of firms and state-orchestrated arrangements that restrict competition can undermine the gains from trade in myriad ways. The purpose of this think-piece is not to make a general pitch for resumption of work on competition policy in the WTO, or to advocate a specific approach to renewed work. Rather, its purpose is to identify and set out a menu of issues that could be addressed in such work in the event that WTO Members choose to go forward in this area, taking account of both past work and current developments in the policy environment.