International Trade and Competition Law (LAWS90095)

This interdisciplinary subject will examine the relationships between international trade and competition policies from both legal and economic perspectives. The subject will focus on anti-competitive practices of an international scope and how they may be addressed by trade and competition rules. It will canvass the tensions and complementarities between these two areas of policy, as well as incorporate general public policy, commercial diplomacy and institutional considerations. In addition, anti-dumping/safeguards law and practices and how they relate to competition law will be taken up and their link with market access opportunities explained.

The course will cover the interface between international trade and competition policy  and include a discussion of  the various initiatives to address international competition law problems, and options to regulate competition law in the World Trade Organization and through other means. Contemporary issues driving new initiatives to reform the World Trade Organisation, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership will be discussed.

Principal topics include:

• Introduction to trade and competition policies: key definitions, concepts, contexts and interdependencies
• Framework for trade liberalisation: a review of trade theories, trade policy, rent seeking, lobbies, corruption and incentives
• Principles of the trading system: most-favoured-nation, non-discrimination, national treatment, prohibition of quantitative restrictions, prohibition of dumping and subsidies, anti-dumping actions and countervailing measures, General System of Preferences (GSP) for developing countries, regional trade arrangements
• Principles of competition policy: theoretical models vs competition restrictions in real world, including dominance, strategic behaviour, anti-competitive mergers, horizontal and vertical agreements and government restrictions
• The interface between the competition and trade policies: comparison of analytical approaches used by competition law and trade policy, including in relation to market definition, harm assessment, remedies, sanctions, countervailing and retaliation measures, dispute resolution, arbitration and judicial review.

In addition to lectures, group discussions and student presentations, case studies drawn from the WTO Dispute Settlement Body  will be used to show “real world” examples of the challenges policy makers face in resolving cross border trade and competition issues.