I.1. Regional Seminars on Trade and Competition

In April 2009 and May 2010 two Regional Seminars on Trade and Competition for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) were conducted, in Caracas (Venezuela) and Brasilia (Brazil), respectively.

The two regional seminars were attended by authorities of the Member States of SELA and other countries of the region, responsible for the areas of foreign trade and competition, as well as UNCTAD officials led by the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Supachai Panitchpakdi.

The work agendas of the seminars included issues such as: links between the areas of foreign trade and defence of competition, the potentials of regional cooperation in the areas of trade and competition, the application of competition rules and the contribution of competition policy to economic development, the needs for technical assistance in the promotion of institutional capacities of the authorities in charge of trade and competition, and the experience gained with the application of the Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices.

The following recommendations were adopted:

- At the first seminar:

• Continue with the analysis of the various aspects related to the issues of trade, competition policies and development.

• With the support of the Permanent Secretariat of SELA and UNCTAD, continue conducting systematic activities involving debates, update and training as regards the issues of trade and competition, in connection with the economic and social development needs of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

• Develop update programmes and spread information aimed at improving human and institutional resources capacities in Latin America and the Caribbean, so as to outline, implement and evaluate competition policies.

• Adopt the proposal for a joint UNCTAD-SELA regional cooperation programme in the areas of trade, competition and development.

• Continue with these analytical and coordination efforts among the Member States of SELA.

- At the second seminar:

• Intensify cooperation between UNCTAD and SELA.

• Work in order to reduce asymmetries and gaps among competition systems in the region.

• Request the Latin American Council of SELA to establish the Working Group for encouraging interaction among trade and competition authorities. UNCTAD and SELA will provide the necessary technical support for organizing and conducting the activities agreed to by the Working Group.

• Document cases that may serve as model and reference for competition authorities, judicial bodies and trade organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in terms of the criteria for imposing sanctions, undertaking judicial processes, or proposing leniency agreements.

• Active participation of the region in the Sixth Revision of the UN Set of Principles on Competition, in November 2010 in Geneva.

Creation of the Working Group on Trade and Competition (WGTC)

Following the recommendations of the Second Regional Seminar, the Latin American Council adopted, in October 2010, (Decision Nº 519), agreeing “to support and endorse the decision to establish a Working Group on Trade and Competition in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to request the Permanent Secretariat to provide the necessary technical support for the organization, preparation and implementation of the activities identified by the Group.”

I.3. First Annual Meeting of the WGTC

The First Annual Meeting of the Working Group on Trade and Competition (WGTC) of SELA was held on 4 and 5 July 2011.

The objective of the meeting was to officially set up the Working Group on Trade and Competition of SELA as a regional forum of authorities for regional cooperation, consultation and coordination, in order to ensure consistency among trade and competition policies in LAC countries.

The agenda for the meeting included the following issues:

• Creation of the WGTC.

• Comparative analysis of national and subregional rules on competition.

• Fundamentals of institutional effectiveness in the area of competition.

• Importance of consistency among competition policies and other government policies, including trade.

• Review of experiences in cooperation to enforce competition policies, including regional cooperation.

• Exchange of views on the interests and objectives of the region’s countries with a view to their participation in the 11th edition of the Inter-governmental Group of Experts (IGE) on competition law and policy of UNCTAD, which was held in Geneva in July 2011.

Para el período 2011–2014 el Grupo eligió a la Autoridad de Competencia de Brasil como Presidente del GTCC y, como Vicepresidentes, a la Autoridad de Comercio de la República Dominicana y a la Autoridad de Comercio y Competencia de Costa Rica. La Secretaría General de la UNCTAD actuaría como Secretaría Técnica, y la Secretaría Permanente del SELA como Secretaría Ejecutiva.

The Working Group agreed to create four Working Sub-Groups to deal with the following matters:

• Enforcement of trade legislation, capacity building and advocacy, coordinated by Mexico.

• Legal instruments relating to competition and bilateral, regional and multilateral trade, coordinated by Chile.

• Consultations on competition and trade policies, coordinated by Jamaica.

• Research and sectoral studies, coordinated by Panama.

conclusions:

• Participants welcomed the documents prepared by the Secretariats of UNCTAD and SELA, as well as the analyses and the information contained in the presentations, which led to an important exchange of views and practices, thereby spreading information about valuable experiences.

• The WGTC, as the formal result of a goal set forth in 2009, requires the commitment, support and active participation of the 33 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean and their integration institutions, along with the support of international cooperation.

• The WGTC is open to the participation of all the Latin American and Caribbean countries, as well as their regional integration and cooperation organizations, and to the support that may be provided by other national and international organizations interested in the issues of trade and competition.

• The various legislations and practices of Latin America and the Caribbean reveal remarkable conceptual differences as regards the terminology used, the provisions already developed, the procedural and assessment mechanisms and the work methodologies. This poses a challenge for cooperation, assistance and convergence in the region.

• Each country and each region have their own specific political, economic, social, legal and business features, which are constantly evolving. Nevertheless, there are common elements that can serve to search for institutional efficiency of competition policies and coherence with the rest of the economic and social policies.

• The competition policy should promote an efficient operation of markets for the well-being of consumers, which can create a sound economic environment and have an impact on the effectiveness of the regulations governing the economy and the formulation of sectoral policies.

• Cooperation is a platform for institutional strengthening and modernization, which generates mutual benefits for participating agencies and countries.

• Cooperation through regular contacts and consultations among the agencies creates confidence for deepening and expanding such cooperation.

• In the free trade agreements, the commitments as regards competition can create a complementary agenda, which may encourage a closer alignment and complementarity between trade and competition policies.

And recommendations were as follows:

• To adopt the Regulations of the WGTC presented by the Permanent Secretariat, and to designate the high-level trade and competition officials who will form part of the WGTC by no later than mid-August 2011.

• The activities of the WGTC should promote synergies among regional and international agencies and authorities in charge of trade, competition and cooperation.

• As part of the organizational dynamics of the WGTC, a recommendation is made for the Chairmanship and the Secretariat to adopt a roadmap of the activities organized within the framework of specific programmes and projects.

• It was deemed advisable to make an evaluation of differences as regards concepts, terminology, scope and working and assessment methods among the various national and subregional regulations to promote competition, in order to identify subjects and issues on which discussions would effectively serve for the purposes of harmonization of criteria in the region.

• Participants reiterated the importance of cooperation, particularly for the adoption and development of regulations and institutions on trade and competition, as well as their consistency with development policies in the different countries and integration processes, especially those that have been recently established or are in process of adoption or creation.

• Through the WGTC, the countries of the region will be able to exchange information and experiences, among others, as regards regulations, working methods, institutional capacity building, creation of a culture of competition, and management of transnational anti-competitive practices.

• In this connection, a recommendation was made to create a regional outreach programme to promote the culture of competition, based on successful experiences in the region.

• Based on the studies conducted by the Secretariat of UNCTAD and other sources – particularly by the Member States of the Working Group – the Secretariat will identify and spread information about the experiences gained within the framework of the integration and trade agreements of the countries of the region on cooperation in the area of competition.

• The Latin American and Caribbean countries endorse their active participation in the 11th Session of the Inter-Governmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy of UNCTAD.

I.4. Second Annual Meeting of the WGTC

The Second Annual meeting of the WGTC was held in Lima, Peru on 18 and 19 July 2012. The agenda included a high level panel on the topic of “how competition clauses of regional trade integration agreements contribute to reinforce the effectiveness of national competition authorities”. Furthermore, there were three working sessions on: the contribution of competition clauses to trade integration; public tendering and its relation to competition; and trade and the challenges anticompetitive behaviour generates in emerging and developing countries. Moreover, the WGTC received reports from the Working Sub-Group 2 (Coherence between Trade and Competition Policy) and 4 (Issues of Competition and Trade in the Health Sector) and examined the needs of assistance and cooperation of the countries of the region.

As a result of the presentations and the debates, the Working Group drew the following conclusions:

• Clauses on competition defence in trade agreements favour international trade among SELA members and countries in the rest of the world.

• Relevant provisions in free trade agreements reveal some convergence of competition and trade policies among SELA members.

• There is need for increased cooperation between the authorities for international trade and competition of the SELA member countries. Such cooperation should begin with the exchange of best practices. Moreover, the cooperation should also focus on specific projects such as training for judges and prosecutors, competition advocacy, technical training in cartel investigations and analysis of economic concentration.

• It is important to individually and continuously assess the priorities and needs in terms of technical assistance and strengthening of institutional capacities.

• Agreement to finalize the two reports presented by the Working Sub-Groups 2 and 4 whereas members committed to send their answers to the questionnaires circulated by the two Sub-Groups. These reports have been completed and will be presented at the Third Annual Meeting of the WGTC.

• According to the needs identified in the report of the Sub-Group 4 to be presented at the next Annual Meeting of the WGTC and to the terms of reference proposed by Panama during the Second Annual Meeting of the WGTC, a sectoral study on competition in the health sector of SELA member countries will be decided upon.

• Sub-Group 2 will deepen the analysis of the current state of inter-agency cooperation so as to identify the lessons learned regarding efficiency and heterogeneity of agreements.

Further the WGTC produced the following recommendations:

• All WGTC members should complete the circulated questionnaires of Sub-Groups 2 and 4 as soon as possible. As soon as the answers are analyzed, the Sub-Groups will complete their reports and present them at the Third Annual Meeting of the WGTC (2013). These reports will build on the two first regional documents of the WGTC.

• Sub-Groups 1 and 3 of the WGTC coordinated by Jamaica and Mexico should initiate activities in 2012-2013.

• Sub-Group 3 on Capacity Building, coordinated by Mexico should submit a report to WGTC on the needs of institutional capacity building among trade and competition authorities of the SELA member states. In particular, the report could focus on knowledge management.

• The WGTC recommends the establishment of a Sub-Group 5 in charge of the interface between competition policy and other public policies. The following countries expressed their will to actively participate: Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela. The invitation is extended to Cuba and CARICOM. Argentina offered to act as coordinator.

• All of the Sub-Groups should represent reports during the Third Annual Meeting of the WGTC which will be open to discussion in the plenary session.

• All WGTC members should reply in due course to information requests released in the framework of the WGTC and its Sub-Groups.

• Latin American and the Caribbean countries should promote permanent channels of dialogue and communication between national and sub-regional authorities on trade and competition, and between them and their counterparts in other countries to exchange experiences and best practices in these areas.

• The WGTC should develop new mechanisms for consultations and communication using Information and Communication Technology (ICT). First, it is important for trade and competition authorities of SELA member states to communicate their exact contact details so as to ensure the reception of all the relevant information and communications in due time.

• The WGTC web page, which is on the SELA web page, should be strengthened and systematized. This page should provide all the relevant information on the WGTC, including the contact details of trade and competition agencies of all the members, agendas, conclusions, recommendations, presentations and papers of the annual meetings, announcements of activities of Sub-Groups (such as telephone conferences etc.), the products of WGTC and its Sub-Groups (reports, etc.), and any further relevant information on Sub-Groups.

• An instrument to share relevant information will be conceived at the earliest possible to improve mutual knowledge between trade and competition authorities of the SELA member states and to promote cooperation among them.

• The possibility to establish common research studies on topics of interest for SELA member states should be explored. A first study could focus on the Health Sector referring to what had been presented by Panama during the Second Annual Meeting of the WGTC and the answers received from questionnaires circulated by Sub-group 4, as soon as sufficient answers have been received.

• The possibility to perform peer reviews between national trade authorities and SELA member states should be considered. They could benefit from the extensive experience gained by UNCTAD and other national competition authorities.

• The Third Annual Meeting should not be held later than September 2013. The delegate of Argentina proposes to hold the meeting in May in Buenos Aires, announcing the availability and engagement of its country.

• Additional to the reports of the Working Sub-Groups the Third Annual Meeting should include sessions on the following issues: the benefits from competition policy in the supply of goods and services and the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME); and competition and trade cases involving more than one SELA member state.