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Merida, Mexico, June 26, 2003 - At the end of their second annual conference, members of the International Competition Network (ICN) adopted a series of recommended practice proposals and presented reports aimed at improving merger review, competition advocacy, and capacity building throughout the world. Representatives from almost all of the world’s antitrust agencies attended the three day conference, in Merida, Mexico, which was addressed by Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada and hosted by the Mexican Federal Competition Commission. "The Merida Conference was a significant event bringing together competition authorities and non-government advisers from developed and developing countries from six continents to address practical enforcement and policy issues," said Dr. Fernando Sanchez Ugarte, President of the Mexican Federal Competition Commission. "Working together and learning from one another through the ICN, we are taking impressive strides toward improving the practice of antitrust in many areas, including merger review, competition advocacy, and capacity building." The ICN is a project-oriented and consensus based organization. Its membership is open to national and multinational competition agencies responsible for the enforcement of antitrust laws. Antitrust experts from the private sector, academia and other international organizations work with ICN members to produce recommended practice proposals and substantive reports to enhance convergence among the laws, processes, and policies of different authorities. The recommended practice proposals are non-binding but, once adopted by the ICN, they form a baseline for sound antitrust enforcement practice. Since its inception in October 2001, the ICN has focused its efforts on merger review in a multi-jurisdictional context, the role of competition advocacy, and how to create effective capacity building programs for agencies in developing and transition economies. "We have made real progress in determining how competition authorities should bring about substantive and procedural convergence on a global scale," said Konrad von Finckenstein, Canadian Competition Commissioner, who was confirmed as Chair of the ICN Steering Group. "The ultimate beneficiaries of our work are consumers and businesses throughout the world." In order to streamline the merger review process and reduce costly duplication, ICN members adopted seven Recommended Practices: on jurisdictional nexus, notification thresholds, timing of notification, merger review periods, requirements for initial notifications, transparency, and review of merger control provisions. These supplement the eight Guiding Principles for merger review that were adopted at last year’s ICN conference. The ICN’s merger work also produced comprehensive papers on merger guidelines, and initial papers on investigative techniques. The competition advocacy discussions focused on three new reports, concerning model advocacy provisions, sectoral studies, and practical techniques, respectively. This work emphasized the importance of advocacy to the ability of competition authorities to promote procompetitive reform within government. The capacity building discussions dealt with a comprehensive report on three closely-related topics: the case for competition law in developing and transition economies; the challenges of building effective competition agencies in such economies; and experiences in providing technical assistance to competition agencies in such economies. ICN members emphasized that capacity building work was extremely important in fostering a global culture of competition. In addition to the continuing program of work examining multijurisdictional merger review, and capacity building, the ICN established a working group on the role of competition enforcement in regulated sectors. The next ICN annual conference will be held in the Republic of Korea in April 2004. For more information please contact: Mexico Canada |
