7 - Regional competition law and policy

Summary

This chapter offers a ‘global’ overview of competition law and policy as they have come to be developed at regional levels (beyond Europe) around the world. The chapter considers competition law initiatives within different regional communities as well as the inclusion of competition law as an element within regional free trade agreements. The aim here is not to offer an isolated treatment of every single effort at regional level but rather to consider the ‘idea’ of regional cooperation in an international context.

In recent years, considerable efforts have been made in relation to developing competition law and policy regionally. A review of these efforts will be given in the chapter with special attention being devoted to the following: Middle Eastern developments (with and without EU involvement); African developments: the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA or WAEMU), the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC); in Asia: the creation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC); in the Americas and the Caribbean: the creation of the Southern Common Market (MERCUSOR), the Andean Community, Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and the various Latin American Free Trade Agreements.