Competition Law and the Agenda for the WTO: Forging the Links of Competition and Trade

The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade is complete, and the agenda for the next round is being formulated. It is widely expected that issues of competition, the environment, and possibly labor will be on the agenda for the next round of the GATT. This article examines why it is that the world trading agenda may be thus expanding. Specifically as to competition law, it examines the history of devising world competition rules, the wisdom of revisiting the enterprise of doing so, and alternative approaches to competition in the GATT agenda.

The article concludes with a modest proposal for forging the links between competition and trade in the context of the GATT.