US Committee Proposes Virtual Body of Int'l Specialists Instead
March 1, 2000
The World Trade Organisation is ill equipped to review complex international anti-trust issues and they should be addressed by a "virtual" organisation of specialists, a US committee has proposed.
The committee, created by the US Justice Department, submitted recommendations on Monday to Attorney General Janet Reno. The panel said tariffs and treaty obligations, overlapping jurisdictions among anti-trust officials in various countries and spotty international cooperation hinder merger reviews and anti-trust enforcement.
The shortcomings can be eased by creating a "Global Competition Initiative", a loosely organised group of anti-trust representatives from various countries, the panel said. The organisation would exchange information without maintaining a staff, budget or having enforcement power and could be modelled after the G-7, the Group of Seven leading industrial nations.
A record US$3.4 trillion (S$5.8 trillion) worth of mergers were announced last year. Sixty countries have their own competition agencies, the panel said. "There is no silver bullet," said Joel Klein, head of the Justice Department anti-trust division. "What the committee recognised is there is not going to be in the foreseeable future a single global anti-trust enforcement agency."
The panel said the World Trade Organisation, which promotes free trade among member nations, can't resolve the anti-trust issues and conflicts that US officials encounter. The panel linked anti-trust issues with trade disputes, saying US companies can't get access to some foreign markets because of tariffs.
The WTO "is an organisation which at this point is not equipped to really tackle the details and the concerns that exist", said Paula Stern, a co-chairwoman of the panel. Ms Stern is president of the Stern Group Inc, an economic and trade analysis firm, and a former commissioner and chairwoman of the US International Trade Commission. James Rill, a former Justice Department anti-trust head and co-chairman of the advisory panel, said the proposed organisation wouldn't take on a political role or negotiate tariffs and trade treaties. The Justice Department appointed the panel in November 1997.
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