UE AND USA: AMERICANS ARE IN FAVOUR OF A CONSTITUTION OF A WORLD ORGANISM FOR THE COMPETITION, WHICH IS INDEPENDENT OF THE NATIONAL ORGANS ALREADY EXISTING, BUT WITHOUT POWERS OVER THE NATIONS.
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Brussels, 14/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - In Brussels on Thursday, the
United
States set out their so far informal proposals of creating a world
competition authority.. At the conference to celebrate the 10th
anniversary
of the Community regulation on mergers, and a little later before the
press, a senior American official said that the idea was to develop a
body
totally independent of existing institutions, including the World
trade
Organisation (WTO), for which the functioning would be close to that
of the
OECD, including the exchange of information and recommendations on
the
timetable, comitology, and the referral of cases to such or such a
competent authority at national level. The phenomenon of
globalisation and
the unprecedented proliferation of transnational transactions calls
for the
establishment of an authority to supervise, co-ordinate and simplify
the
various procedures that are presently necessary to ensure that
fairness of
the competitive game, said, Joel Klein, the assistant to the Advocate
General responsible for the "Anti-trust" division of the American
Department of Justice. He felt that this proposal is not completely
against
the European approach, aiming to develop the role of the WTO to
enable it
to intervene over issues of competition linked to trade. Washington
confirms its reservations and its refusal to go beyond a specific
working
party within the Geneva based organisation, used to examining
problems such
as restrictions in access to markets for multinationals, etc.
However, the
WTO could "pay a part in the development of a world authority, along
side
the OECD, World Bank", among other institutions concerned, "to
contribute
towards the management of this project", indicated Mr Klein. As for
the
timetable Washington wants to be realistic: "the sooner is obviously
the
better, but a project of such a size must be carefully prepared he
said.
Also adding: "As long as relations (with the Union) remain solid, we
have
time to develop this initiative". As this relationship, based on the
transatlantic cooperation agreement in the field of competition, is
well,
he asserted, despite some differences that remain between the two
jurisdictions, notably in terms of procedural; delays, as underlined
the
President of the Federal trade Commission, Robert Pitofsky who was at
his side.
18/09/2000