Punta Cana, Dominican Republic . November  05 to 06, 2014 . Hotel Barceló Bávaro Beach Resort and Convention Centre Punta Cana.

Regional Seminars on Trade and Competition in Latin America and the Caribbean were held in April 2009 and May 2010 in Caracas and Brasilia. Both meetings were attended by authorities in charge of foreign trade and competition from the Member States of SELA, as well as officials of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The agendas of the seminars included issues such as the relations between the areas of foreign trade and defence of competition, the potentials for regional cooperation in matters related to trade and competition, the enforcement of competition rules and the contribution of competition policy to economic development, the needs for technical assistance for institutional capacity-building, and the experiences gained from implementing the Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices.

The Working Group on Trade and Competition (WGTC) was formally established through Decision N° 519 of the XXXVI Latin American Council of SELA, which was held from 27 to 29 October 2010. It is made up by the Permanent Secretariat of SELA and the General Secretariat of UNCTAD.

The First Meeting of the WGTC took place in Bogotá, Colombia, on 4 and 5 July 2011. It was aimed at confirming and formalizing the Working Group as a unique regional forum of authorities for regional cooperation, consultation and coordination, and at promoting coherence among trade and competition policies in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The II Meeting was held in Lima, Peru, on 18 and 19 June 2012. There, participants discussed the contribution of competition clauses in regional trade integration agreements, public procurement and its relation with trade and competition, and the challenges posed by cross-border anti-competitive practices for emerging and developing countries.

The III Meeting, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 24 and 25 September 2013, focused on trade and competition in the energy and hydrocarbons markets, regional institutional capacity building in both sectors, competition policy in the telecommunications sector, provision of goods and services, promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), inter-institutional cooperation, and recent legislative reforms in the areas of trade and competition in the countries of the region.

This IV Meeting will provide the first opportunity for the WGTC to gather in the Caribbean subregion, as a meeting space for national authorities responsible for outlining trade and competition policies and for the participation of multilateral and regional integration organizations.