Download 7-Up Advocacy Document

7-Up Advocacy Document
Draft Outline
The document will be approximately 25-30 pages including cover, preface etc. as the
overall length of the document will influence people’s willingness to read it.
There will be a continuous flow of argument where the general arguments will be
made. Boxes will be interspersed throughout the texts, highlighting particular cases or
comparative research results.
Tables, charts, graphs and perhaps small illustration boxes will be used throughout the
text to make it easier to absorb the information.
I. Intro
1. What is competition law and policy?
2. Is it relevant to developing countries? Dev country economies are often
characterised by large informal sectors, high unemployment, large public
sector, small but growing private sector, reliance on the production of a few
commodities BUT competition policy & law is still relevant, even in the
smallest, non-industrial economies.
3. CPL is even more important given the prevailing trends of liberalisation and
globalisation, particularly privatisation and foreign investment. Serves as a
way to circumscribe the power of large firms; balance between business and
consumer.
4. What purpose does it serve? To protect the interests of consumers – and
businesses are consumers too – and promote competitiveness in the economy.
Is there a relationship with poverty?
5. Who benefits from CPL? Is it possible to assess the benefits to developing
economies of CPL? Do countries with CPL perform better? (This would
require you to say, in what way? May be attracting more FDI doing more trade
etc. But how are going to quantify. Not sure if any such study has been done.
In any case to establish a clear linkage like this would be quite difficult)
Moreover this section might become repetitive with the 2nd section in this
chapter! [BOX of evidence on benefits]
6. Growing interest in CPL [BOX list of developing countries with CL and
countries in which a bill is in the P’ment or being drafted; BOX of the laws in
the 7-Up countries, when they were implemented, current debates surrounding
redrafting/amendment of laws in the 7-Up countries]
7. What are the sources of resistance to CPL? [BOX of comments from NRGs
expressing concerns about CPL]
II. The Creation of a competition culture.
What does a competition culture mean?
What are the elements that it is comprised of?
a. Active consumers. [BOX The role of consumers and cons orgs]
b. What about the business?
c. Interested media [BOX Highlights of press clippings culled from countries
during the project]
d. Linked-up laws covering privatisation, regulation (utilities, financial sector),
intellectual property, trade policies, consumer protection policy.. (Care should
be taken to avoid repetition with the 1st section of Chapter 1. Maybe here you
can talk about from institutional angle rather than policy angle.
III. The Competition Law
1. CL is developing in all countries. [BOX Developments in comp analysis e.g.
assessing market dominance, ‘contestable markets,’ rule of reason etc.] (Shift
from structure oriented competition policy enforcement to conduct-oriented
one)
2. How does a country go about drafting and implementing a CL?
3. What does the law need to cover? Identify the kinds of comp problems that
dev countries have. RBPs [BOX Define RBPs by way of actual examples from
the countries, if poss]; Cartels; the question of M&As [BOX Provisions
regarding M&As in the 7 countries]
4. Many of these have an international dimension. Law should have provisions
that cover cross-border issues but there are special problems. Discuss further
in Section VI.
5. Is there a model that countries should use? One size does not fit all, law should
be drafted according to the national public policy/historical context and its
development objectives [BOX How are development objectives reflected in
the provisions of CLs?]. Differences can be reflected in:
a. Aims
b. Substantive provisions?
c. Exceptions and Exemptions [BOX exceptions in the 7-Up countries and
rationale]
IV. The Institution
1. Independence [BOX country comparison]
2. Power & Functions: Investigative/Prosecutorial/adjudicatory/Advocacy
3. Separation of functions [BOX country comparison]
V. Implementation
1. Political strength. [BOX cases of political interference]
2. Resources: financial [BOX budget and % GDP spend on CPL in countries]
3. Resources: human. Lack of skills, experience for CA employees, difficulties in
retaining staff, lawyers [BOX suggested actions]
4. Involvement of civil society and other stakeholders
VI. The International dimension
1. M&As. [BOX case studies of the impact of foreign M&As in 7-Up countries]
2. Cartels [BOX global cartels and estimated costs]
3. Other anti-competitive practices, e.g., abuse by globally dominant TNCs,
predatory dumping etc.
International approaches are needed to address these problems
1. Regional approaches [BOX COMESA] ASEAN, SADC, EAC, CARICOM
2. Multilateral Comp Policy. (Multilateral agreement: possible benefits and costs
for developing countries. Since it is a politically sensitive issue, we should
provide differing views to make the document more acceptable) What could it
contain? [BOX possible provisions with a developing country perspective
(those on the table as well as hypothetical ones) with the emphasis on
technical assistance, capacity-building and mechanisms for cooperation] .
There should be a concluding section to discuss the way ahead, maybe in the form
Required actions by different agents: Governments, IGOs, CSOs, & Business.