Chairman, Planning Commission's Task Force on National Competition Policy, India, Pradeep S Mehta said on Friday that the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and Indian competition agency should share their experiences taking into account the possible impact of regional free trade agreements and cross border transactions on business and trade of both the countries in future.
Explaining the importance of the international obligations during formulation of the National Competition Policy, he said that the relations between India and Pakistan were normalising and there was a need to share each other experiences in wake of World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements. Both the competition agencies should start consultative process to share their competition related experiences under trade liberalisation.
He said that the National Competition Policy should be chalked out in view of international obligations like UN Conventions, trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs) and World Trade Organisation (WTO) etc. The national policy needs to be framed in a way so as to respect international obligations, such as UN Conventions, TRIPs, WTO etc. The countries should also take into account the competition provisions in regional trade agreements and bilateral or regional competition agreements to ensure a competitive environment for trade and investment.
He said after a long process India has initiated a National Competition Policy in June 2011, which is likely to be adopted in December 2011. The new policy has been inspired by the experience in Australia, where competition reforms resulted in 5.5 percent growth. This experience is now guiding many countries to sequence competition policy followed by a competition law.