Trade, Competition and Multilateral Competition Policy: a South Asian Perspective

There is a fair amount of interaction between trade and competition policy. The paper highlights the elements of competition policy that are present in various agreements under the WTO and argues that competition is not a new issue at the WTO though it may not have been systematically developed. The paper also discusses the multilateralization of binding competition rules, the issues that are on the table for further discussion, the possible and existing hurdles against the efforts towards the multilateral arrangement and the feasibility of such an arrangement on competition both under the WTO umbrella and outside it. The paper stresses that some sort of international regime to regulate competition concerns is needed and that for any kind of multilateral framework for competition the agenda must come from the South.