CUTS International released three publications at the 11th OECD Global Forum on Competition: a) “Evolution of Competition Laws and their Enforcement—A Political Economy Perspective” published by Routledge, b) “Did we make a difference? Reforming Competition Law Regimes in the Developing World through the 7Up Programme” published by CUTS, and c) “Trade, Competition and the Pricing of Commodities” published by Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and CUTS.

“The Evolution of Competition Laws is another milestone publication by CUTS in its engaging agenda on pursuing competition reforms in the developing world”, said Frederic Jenny, Chairman of the OECD Committee on Competition. “The other publication on Trade, Competition and Pricing of Commodities is another such effort, a topical issue being discussed today at the OECD conference”.

Carlos Braga, Special Representative of World Bank in Europe observed that it is not enough to have good competition laws, but that they get embedded in the economic governance structures of countries leading to better competition culture.

“CUTS name is synonymous with competition in India and elsewhere in the developing world, and it has been doing a yeoman service in promoting competition reforms. We have benefited from their advocacy and are proud of their work”, said Ashok Chawla, Chairman, Competition Commission of India.

CUTS Secretary General, Pradeep S. Mehta welcomed all the guests at the book launch and spoke about the motives of the publication on Evolution of Competition Laws. “The book carries essays on nine countries: Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Ireland, Poland, Serbia, South Africa, Tanzania and UK describing their transition from old competition laws to new ones over time. It is a good guide for countries, which are adopting new competition laws to understand the processes better”.

Mehta also spoke about the third book on: “Did we make a difference?”. This is an evaluation report of the CUTS work on competition law reforms in 27 developing countries through its signature 7Up programme in the last 10 years. “The uniqueness of the 7Up approach was to work on competition reforms issues in the developing world through a demand side and bottom up approach, and by developing local ownership and sustaining capacity in the countries, as against the top down and supply side approach used by intergovernmental agencies.

Jenny spoke about the issue of ‘beggar thy neighbour’ export cartels in the primary commodities sector and why there should be international cooperation to deal with them. “The project of the CEPR-CUTS publication and symposium on trade and competition at Geneva in September, 2012 was also referred to by Pascal Lamy, Director General, World Trade Organisation in his inaugural speech (Refer: http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/sppl_e/sppl217_e.htm) at the OECD conference, and that it is time developing countries should take a dispassionate look at reviving the discussions on trade and competition at an international level”, said Jenny.

In conclusion, Mehta thanked the OECD secretariat for facilitating the event, and the audience for their participation

For more information, please contact:
Pradeep S Mehta, +91 98290 13131, psm@cuts.org

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