International Trade And Competition Policy

The fast-evolving relationship between the promotion of welfare-enhancing competition and the balanced protection of intellectual property (IP) rights has attracted the attention of policymakers, analysts and scholars. This interest is inevitable in an environment that lays ever greater emphasis on the management of knowledge and innovation and on mechanisms to ensure that the public derives the expected social and economic benefits from this innovation and the spread of knowledge. This book looks at the positive linkage between IP and competition in jurisdictions around the world, surveying developments and policy issues from an international and comparative perspective. It includes analysis of key doctrinal and policy issues by leading academics and practitioners from around the globe and a cutting-edge survey of related developments across both developed and developing economies. It also situates current policy developments at the national level in the context of multilateral developments, at WIPO, WTO and elsewhere.

This book is a welcome and timely addition to the library of materials exploring the implications of the move from internationalisation of trade towards globalisation. Michael Hutchings, European Competition Law Review This book provides an excellent introduction to the difficult and important issues surrounding international trade and competition policy. Douglas A. Irwin, Dartmouth College, US The opening up of world markets, rapid growth of trade and foreign direct investment create manifold problems for competition policy. Thus, international mergers may have adverse effects on many countries, international cartels may carve up world markets and dominant firms may seek to maintain their global position by exclusionary conduct. These problems have been recognised for more than half a century and some attempts have been made internationally to address them, so far with limited success. This progressive book seeks to explore the problems and concerns that globalisation has created for competition policy. The book begins by setting out the principles of competition and trade policies, and then goes on to address the impact of market globalisation on what are usually thought of as traditional antitrust concerns. These include the analysis of the difficulties arising from collusion and other restrictive practices, government sponsored voluntary co-operation , vertical restrictions and market access, pricing strategies of dominant firms and international mergers, all illustrated with a number of prominent case studies. The author concludes with an illuminating discussion on the feasibility of international co-operation on competition policy, the faltering progress that has been made so far and the prospects for future advances. This comprehensive volume will prove to be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of law and economics. It will also find wide appeal amongst researchers, policy makers and practitioners with an interest in industrial organisation, antitrust policy and globalisation.

The links between trade policy and competition policy have become more important in recent years. This book -- which includes a whole chapter on the telecommunications sector -- throws new light on all these issues in the lead up to the WTO's new round of negotiations.

This publication brings together a series of working papers that Member countries' trade and competition authorities have considered during the past two years. They analyse issues at the interface of trade and competition.

The fast-evolving relationship between the promotion of welfare-enhancing competition and the balanced protection of intellectual property (IP) rights has attracted the attention of policymakers, analysts and scholars. This interest is inevitable in an environment that lays ever greater emphasis on the management of knowledge and innovation and on mechanisms to ensure that the public derives the expected social and economic benefits from this innovation and the spread of knowledge. This book looks at the positive linkage between IP and competition in jurisdictions around the world, surveying developments and policy issues from an international and comparative perspective. It includes analysis of key doctrinal and policy issues by leading academics and practitioners from around the globe and a cutting-edge survey of related developments across both developed and developing economies. It also situates current policy developments at the national level in the context of multilateral developments, at WIPO, WTO and elsewhere.

There is growing consensus among international trade negotiators and policymakers that a prime area for future multilateral discussion is competition policy. Competition policy includes antitrust policy (including merger regulation and control) but is often extended to include international trade measures and other policies that affect the structure, conduct, and performance of individual industries. This study includes country studies of competition policy in Western Europe, North America, and the Far East (with a focus on Japan) in the light of increasingly globalized activities of business firms. Areas where there are major differences in philosophy, policy, or practice are identified, with emphasis on those differences that could lead to economic costs and international friction. Alternatives for eliminating these costs and frictions are discussed, including unilateral policy changes, bilateral or multilateral harmonization of policies, and creation of new international regimes to supplement or replace national or regional regimes.

Diploma Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: 1,00, University of Salzburg (Völkerrecht), language: English, abstract: Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit behandelt das Problem der Regelung von Wettbewerbsfragen im Völkerrecht im allgemeinen und in der WTO im besonderen. In Kapitel 1 werden die wirtschaftlichen Hintergründe und unterschiedlichen Motive für staatliche wettbewerbsrechtliche Regelungen dargestellt. Kapitel 2 stellt verschiedene Tatbestände, die im Wettbewerbsrecht als regelungsbedürftig angesehen werden, vor (z.B. Kartelle, Missbrauch der marktbeherrschenden Stellung, etc.). Kapitel 3 beschreibt nationale Regelungsansätze des Wettbewerbsrechtes einschließlich bilateraler Kooperationsabkommen, die zur Durchsetzung nationaler Regelungen erforderlich sind. Besonderes Augenmerk wird auch auf die unterschiedlichen Rechtskulturen gelegt, die die nationalen Regelungen beeinflussen. Kapitel 4 stellt die bisherigen Regelungsansätze auf internationaler Ebene dar, wobei die auf regionaler Ebene verbindliches Recht darstellen, die auf universeller Ebene allerdings im Bereich des soft laws bleiben. Kapitel 5 und 6 stellen die Kernkapitel der Arbeit dar und befassen sich mit Wettbewerbsrecht im Rahmen der WTO. In Kapitel 5 werden bestehende wettbewernsrelevante Regelungen in der WTO dargestellt. Zunächst wird beschrieben, welche staatlichen Maßnahmen, die von der WTO Rechtsordnung erfasst sind, den Wettbewerb beeinflussen. In einem weiteren Schritt wird analysiert, welche WTO Regelungen Staaten verpflichten könnten, privates wettbewerbswidriges Handeln zu regulieren. Da die Regelungen der WTO grundsätzlich Verpflichtungen für Staaten enthalten, wettbewerbsrelevantes Verhalten aber von Unternehmen gesetzt werden, ist es notwendig, einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Verhalten von Privaten und den staatlichen Verpflichtungen aus dem WTO Recht darzustellen. In Kapitel 6 wird schließlich die Diskussionen in