Towards WTO Competition Rules

The progressive elimination of formal, governmentally imposed trade barriers under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade («GATT») and - since 1995 - the World Trade Organization («WTOs») brought competition policy on the agenda of the WTO. In November 1998 a WTO working group presented a comprehensive report on the ((Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy, (Jenny Report).

In July 1999, a group of internationally recognized competition law experts, together with high ranking officials from the WTO, Geneva, the European Commission, and the German Bundeskartellamt met in a seminar at Zurich University with the aim to comment on the Jenny Report, to identify key issues for international competition rules and to present proposals for such rules. The results are presented in this volume.

Due to evident differences between the U.S. and Europe/Japan on the goals and features of rules protecting international competition, negotiations in this area will be difficult. The contributions contained in this volume offer new approaches and proposals that might help to overcome these difficulties.