EU chief calls for WTO competition policy pact

Reuters, Budapest

Europe's top anti-trust official on Monday urged the 142 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to push for an agreement on competition policy at talks in Qatar next month.

European Competition Commissioner Mario Monti said that, in addition to agreement at the upcoming WTO round of trade talks, an international network should be set up to pursue efficient anti-trust policy globally.

"Interconnection between competition authorities in the world is at a hugely primitive state relative to...for example, the agencies supervising the securities markets," Monti said in a speech delivered at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Monti said the European Union's aim was not to create a world competition body, nor did Brussels want the WTO to decide on individual competition cases.

"What we would like to see is an agreement within WTO on a few core principles of competition law," he said, adding these would include the rule of transparency, among others.

A Qatar round would be the eighth called since 1947 by the WTO or its predecessor, The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Monti said agreement on competition policy among WTO members would reinforce the status of regulators, especially in emerging countries.

An international competition network, on the other hand, would serve as an "open forum", established by the U.S. Justice Depart ment, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Canada's Competition Bureau and the European Commission.

"The network will serve as a place, a virtual and yet real network, where expertise can be pooled," Monti said.