Fiona Marshall

Much has been written on the need for an international competition agreement to complement the trade agreements already in place within the World Trade Organisation. Discussion has taken place on the principles that should constitute this agreement and how it should be implemented and enforced, but consensus on these principles has not been forthcoming. At the other end of the spectrum, it has been advocated that the way forward is in developing further networks of co-operation, thus, so the argument goes, creating substantive harmonisation of competition laws and limiting the chances of jurisdictional conflict. This article does not seek to side with either argument or prove one right or wrong; instead it proposes a method in which existing trade protection instruments can be read in such a manner so as to promote international competition, and the aims of competition law in general, instead of domestic protection. In promoting international competition in this way, it will be seen that competition law norms will be developed and accepted on the international stage, thus limiting the conflict of jurisdictions and, potentially, the need for an international competition agreement.

In the following sections aspects of the trade protection agreements containing competition law language are examined and it is considered the extent to which (quasi) judicial/legislative reform of these could represent competition law norms. To this end, Section II describes the Agreements in question; Section III compares the Agreements, Section IV proposes reforms and the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) is suggested as an appropriate tool with which to ensure uniformity in domestic systems.