. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/WGTCP/W/125
31 May 1999
(99-2174)
Working Group on the Interaction
between Trade and Competition PolicyOriginal:  English
COMMUNICATION FROM AUSTRALIA
The following communication, dated 19 April 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Australia with the request that it be circulated to Members.
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Approaches to Promoting Cooperation and Communication among WTO Members
Australia is very active in cooperating with other countries on competition matters, including
through economic/governance problems and best practices in developing the most appropriate
framework for promoting competition.  Australia sees considerable value in encouraging such
cooperation. Coordination and cooperation with other countries can help to minimize the distorting
effects from anticompetitive practices, particularly as trade is increasingly globalized, withcommercial markets spanning more than one national jurisdiction.  Such work also assists Australia to
better understand competition issues and potential best practice, both for the Australian economy and
for other societies. International cooperation on competition also has secondary benefits, supporting
Australia's aims in other policy areas, such as trade policy and domestic economic reform.
Much of Australia's international cooperation on competition policy is undertaken by the
Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC – Australia's competition enforcement
agency), complemented by the efforts of other federal agencies such as the Department of ForeignAffairs and Trade (DFAT), the Department of the Treasury and the Australian Agency for
International Development (AusAID).  Following is a brief overview of Australia's cooperation
activities on competition:
• Active participation in competition, consumer protection and public utility
committees within APEC, OECD, WTO, In ternational Society of Consumer and
Competition Officials (ISCCO), and International Marketing and SupervisoryNetwork (IMSN), through attendance and/or  submissions to these organizations'
regular meetings.
• Participation as course presenters in the APEC Partners For Progress (PFP) training
programme, being conducted in Thailand (two ACCC staff participated in 1997, three
in 1998 and one in 1999.)  Two additional programmes, in which Australia willparticipate, are planned for 2000 and 2001.
• Hosting by the ACCC of the Sixth Asia n and Oceanic Antimonopoly Conference in
Australia in November 1999.  This event has traditionally attracted a wide range ofsenior officials from competition agencies throughout the region and is an important
forum for developing strategies and cooperation mechanisms for the region.  The aimof the conference is to promote ongoing discussion and dialogue on domestic andWT/WGTCP/W/125
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international competition policy and law to foster greater harmony, cooperation and
networking between competition agencies and regulators.
• Active participation in international seminars, conferences and workshops in the areas
of competition, consumer protection and utility regulation.
• Regular facilitation of study visits to Australia by delegates from related international
organizations.
• Conduct of a training programme with the Peoples' Republic of China by the ACCC,
with funding from AusAID, to develop their competition and consumer protectionregimes.  The three-phase programme, to be completed during 1999, will involve
training in both China and Australia.
• Implementation of a capacity-building programme with South Africa.  The
programme will involve training and development assistance to the recently-
established Competition Commission in South Africa, in both Australia and South
Africa over the period February 1999 to June 2000.  In the first phase of the
programme, two ACCC staff members travelled to South Africa to assist in the
preparation of staff training manuals and procedures on enforcement methods and
techniques, and in the consideration of exemptions from competition law.
• Regular liaison meetings with agencies with which formal cooperation arrangements
are in place (i.e. ACCC - New Zealand Commerce Commission and ACCC - Taiwan
Fair Trade Commission).
• Staff exchange programmes in place between the ACCC and the New Zealand
Commerce Commission, the Taiwan Fa ir Trade Commission, the Canadian
Competition Bureau and the Eu ropean Commi ssion (DGXXIV).
• Anticipated signing of a treaty (in April 1999) between Australia and the United
States to facilitate cooperation between Australian and US agencies on antitrustmatters.  The treaty includes provisions for exchange of confidential information.
• Participation by Australia in various technical cooperation activities relating to
intellectual property.  This is seen as an important contribution to promotingcoherence between trade and competition policies – including by aiming to reduce the
burden on business, by facilitating and redu cing the cost of intellectual property
protection, and by applying the intellectual property system to build up
internationally competitive export industries.
• Support through the Australian aid programme for a broad range of economic
governance activities likely to increase competition in partner country economies.
One example is the Policy and Management Reform programme in the Pacific, aimed
at increasing the efficiency and accountability of governments and developing
appropriate policy frameworks for natural resource management, foreign trade andinvestment, and the domestic private sector.
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