International Trade and Competition Policy

With the completion of the Uruguay Round of international trade negotiations, attention turns to plausible next steps. One question on the agenda of possibilities is the adoption of competition policies that complement or substitute for the remedies traditionally used to deal with international trade distortions. This paper examines three cases - industrial diamonds, potash from Saskatchewan, and cement from Greece - in which international trade policy and competition policy objectives came into direct conflict. Existing institutions were unable to resolve the conflicts on a timely basis. A proposed augmentation of the World Trade Organization's functions to deal with such cases is considered.

Scherer, Frederic M. (1996), International Trade and Competition Policy, ZEW Discussion Paper Nr. 96-18, Mannheim.