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INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION LAW FACILITATE OR HINDER INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Introduction

Antitrust Laws exist because of the belief that the economy functions best when competitors have limits for permitted activities. Activities governed by laws include monopoly, pricing limitations, predatory practices, merger control and advertising. Related areas include: consumer protection, torts (wrongful interference, slander, etc.), intellectual property, employment and contracts.

On the international stage the concept of competition policy is variable. Competition policy has traditionally been seen as a domestic matter

La mise en oeuvre d'un droit de la concurrence de l'OMC est donc un défi difficile à

relever, mais sans doute profitable pour les pays en voie de développement en général

et les pays arabes en particulier. Ainsi, les travaux de la CNUCED ont montré depuis

1981 que les pratiques restrictives de concurrence adoptées sur les marchés

internationaux ou mondiaux ont des effets très négatifs sur les politiques de

développement.

Des organismes internationaux, tels l'OCDE et l'International Competition Network, font des efforts continus afin de déterminer les meilleures pratiques en vue d'améliorer et d'harmoniser l'application des lois sur la concurrence à l'échelle internationale. Au fil des ans, la loi sur la concurrence a de plus en plus mis l'accent sur les marchés internationaux. Plusieurs fusions très médiatisées, faisant l'objet d'examen dans plus d'une autorité législative, ont démontré le caractère international de la concurrence mondiale et ses répercussions sur les régimes de concurrence nationaux.

Competition law, or antitrust law, has three main elements:

• prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between business. This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels.

• banning abusive behavior by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gouging, refusal to deal, and many others.

• supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to "remedies" such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licenses or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.

Ainsi, les travaux de la CNUCED ont montré depuis

1981 que les pratiques restrictives de concurrence adoptées sur les marchés

internationaux ou mondiaux ont des effets très négatifs sur les politiques de

développement.

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Damages

caused by such practices to developing countries have implications for

the purchasing power of consumers through increased prices.

Producers in the developing world are also affected by anti-competitive

practices through increased barriers to entry by restriction of information

on technology. A World Bank study1 shows that, in 1997, developing

countries imported US$81.1 billion worth of goods from industries where

companies were involved in price-fixing arrangements in the 1990s.

These goods represented 6.7 per cent of imports and 1.2 per cent of

GDP in developing countries. These figures reveal the significance of

the economic impact of the damages of anti-competitive practices on

developing economies. It is worth mentioning that the quantitative

effects of anti-competitive business practices are not easy to

demonstrate. The most obvious effect of such practices is seen in the

form of price increases in markets involving output-restricting or pricefixing