McMahon, Kathryn --- "Developing Countries and International Competition Law and Policy" [2010] ELECD 636; in Faundez, Julio; Tan, Celine (eds), "International Economic Law, Globalization and Developing Countries" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: International Economic Law, Globalization and Developing Countries

Editor(s): Faundez, Julio; Tan, Celine

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848441132

Section: Chapter 12

Section Title: Developing Countries and International Competition Law and Policy

Author(s): McMahon, Kathryn

Number of pages: 31

Extract:

12. Developing countries and
international competition law and
policy
Kathryn McMahon*

1. INTRODUCTION

In the last 20 years the number of countries with some form of competition
law has almost doubled. Approximately 100 countries now have a com-
petition law and as many as 75 per cent of these are developing countries
(Fox, 2007: 104; Stewart et al., 2007: 4; Evans and Jenny, 2009: 10). Many
other developing countries are in the process of enacting legislation and
establishing competition authorities.
Much of this activity can be traced to global trends towards the liber-
alisation of markets and the privatisation of government utilities (OECD,
1992). As the state contracts, competition law is viewed as a last bastion of
regulation required to umpire imperfectly competitive markets or residual
pockets of `market failure': the idea of `competition as the regulator'.
In developing countries the enactment of competition laws was also
a response to neo-liberal international development policies most com-
monly associated with the `Washington Consensus', which prioritised pro-
market structural reforms, fiscal restraint and monetary controls, and the
pursuit of economic efficiency (Williamson, 1990a). Some countries, such
as Indonesia, adopted competition law as a direct condition of the receipt
of funding from the International Monetary Fund. For other post-Soviet
and transitional economies in Eastern Europe its adoption was seen as
preparation for eventual membership of the European Union (EU).
At the international level, competition policy was perceived as integral
to the efficient flow of goods, services and capital in the global ...