AsPac economists bat for regulated competition

The Asia-Pacific region needs a superbody that regulates competition and enforces competition laws across national borders.

The road towards the setting up of such a body that assures fair play in trade practices remains winded. Domestic laws on competition are in differing stages of development among participating economies.

This was one of the most significant conclusions made at the end of the three-day conference of the best strategic economic planners and top economists from Peru in South America to New Zealand and Australia down under to mainland Asia, held recently at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), in Makati City.

Adopting the topic: Competition Policy in the New Millennium, participants compared notes on the state of competition policy in the countries they represented and found that domestic laws are not enough to make free and fair competition flourish.

Summing up the conference result, David K. Round of the Center for Applied Economics of the University of South Australia, noted that the foundations on which a regional regulatory body can be built are now in place with competition principles adopted by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

"A culture for competition and consumer protection is needed" to push the ambitious goal, Round asserted.

There is a need for governments to agree on a lot of issues so that legislation to promote competition will be harmonized. The job of forming a body that regulates and enforces competition policy can proceed more rapidly if influential champions emerge in each of the participating countries.

The top economists admitted that reaching the vision for regulated competition in the most populous region in the world remains a formidable task. At the national level alone, there are vested interest groups that are blatantly against competition laws.

Entrenched economic elites, rent seekers and many politicians have been identified as anti-competition for such policy, when enacted into law, threatens their hold on power.

The top economists in the region arrived at the conclusion that it is time to move ahead. One crucial move, they suggested, is for early cooperation between economies.

The goal is to form East Asian Commission on Competition and Consumer Protection. – Abe P. Belena, Philexport News and Features