COMPETITION POLICY CHAPTER IN
THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
(TPP) AGREEMENT
Alice Pham
CUTS International
Hanoi Resource Centre
COMPETITION PROVISIONS IN FTAS & RTAS
 The
statistics
 The rationale
 The spectrum of commitments
 Important issues :
 S&D treatment to address the
development needs of developing
countries
 Policy space for nurturing national
champions and other industrial
policy considerations
THE COMPETITION POLICY CHAPTER OF THE
TPP
 “Competition
policy” is considered a
“new-generation” FTA issue, included
in most FTA concluded by the US
recently.
 No information has been leaked so far
about this chapter.
 Relevant parties speculate that this
chapter would base on the Korea-US
FTA (KORUS) and the Singapore-US
FTA as ‘benchmarks/points of
departure’
THE CHAPTER MOST LIKELY WILL DEAL
WITH
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Members to maintain & adopt competition laws
that proscribe anticompetitive practices
Members to maintain authorities responsible for the
enforcement of its national competition laws
(‘competition authorities’)
Members to adhere to due process in antitrust
enforcement
State Enterprises
Designated monopolies
Transparency
Cross-border consumer protection?
Other issues such as international mergers, cartels,
technical assistance, etc
HOW DOES IT MATTER TO US, THE
CONSUMERS?
First, would the Chapter include
provisions on “cross-border consumer
protection” or will this important
content be omitted?
KORUS – ARTICLE 16.6
1. The Parties recognize the importance of cooperation on matters related to their
consumer protection laws in order to enhance the welfare of their consumers.
Accordingly, the Parties shall cooperate, in appropriate cases of mutual concern,
in the enforcement of their consumer protection laws.
2. The Parties shall endeavor to strengthen cooperation between the United States
Federal Trade Commission, on the one hand, and the Ministry of Finance and
Economy of Korea and the Korea Fair Trade Commission, on the other, in areas
of mutual concern relating to their respective consumer protection laws,
including by:
(a) consulting on consumer protection policies and exchanging information
related to the enactment and administration of their consumer protection laws;
(b) strengthening cooperation in detecting and preventing fraudulent and
deceptive commercial practices against consumers;
(c) consulting on ways to reduce consumer protection law violations that have
significant cross-border dimensions; and
(d) supporting implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Protecting
Consumers from Fraudulent and Deceptive Commercial Practices Across
Borders (2003).
3. Nothing in this Article shall limit the discretion of an agency referred to in
paragraph 2 to decide whether to take action in response to a request by a
counterpart agency of the other Party, nor shall it preclude any of those agencies
from taking action with respect to any particular matter.
4. Each Party shall endeavor to identify, in areas of mutual concern and consistent
with its own important interests, obstacles to effective cooperation with the other
Party in the enforcement of its consumer protection laws, and shall consider
modifying its domestic legal framework to reduce such obstacles.”
OTHER ISSUES OF INTERESTS
Harmonisation of consumer protection laws?
 Consumers’ legal standing and protection of
consumer interests in antitrust enforcement
 The narrow treatment of “consumer welfare”
solely from the perspective of “competitive
markets”
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CONCLUSIONS
Lots of relevant issues at stake
 More transparency is required to ensure the
development value and fairness of this trade
agreement
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION!