About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

33 Law & Pol'y Int'l Bus. 527 (2001-2002)
International Antitrust at the Crossroads: The End of Antitrust History or the Clash of Competition Policy Civilizations

handle is hein.journals/geojintl33 and id is 537 raw text is: INTERNATIONAL ANTITRUST AT THE CROSSROADS: THE END OF ANTITRUST HISTORY OR THE CLASH OF COMPETITION POLICY CIVILIZATIONS? ANTONIO F. PEREZ* I. INTRODUCTION The great question facing U.S. antitrust law in the next few years is how to respond to the European Union's (EU) increasing pressure for the inclusion of antitrust standards in the managed regime for world trade.' In this context, one must note the increasing aggressiveness of European competition policy enforcement with respect to primarily American transactions, such as the MCI-World Coin/Sprint, Boeing/ McDonnell Douglas, and GE/Honeywell mergers. Such cases either reflect mere policy differences between U.S. and EU antitrust special- ists or a self-conscious EU strategy designed to advance EU trade interests and provoke international conflicts that will compel the United States to come to the table and negotiate global standards for antitrust enforcement. Less menacingly, one could see EU efforts to force the inclusion of competition policy in the next round of global trade talks as simply an effort to complicate those negotiations and thereby reduce the pressure on the European Union for major conces- sions on agricultural subsidies,2 and, by parity of reasoning, see U.S. resistance as merely an effort to avoid a vehicle for imposing new limits on U.S. anti-dumping laws.3 In any event, the recent Doha Declaration * Professor of Law, Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America. A.B. (1982), Harvard University;J.D. (1985), Columbia Law School. I want to thank George Garvey for helpful comments on an earlier version of this essay. Needless to say, the remaining errors are mine alone. 1. See, e.g., David S. Evans, The New Trustbuster: Brussels and Washington May Part Ways, FOREIGN AFi., Jan.-Feb. 2002, at 14, 19 (reporting European pressure for inclusion of antitrust rules and international antitrust governing authority under the umbrella of the WTO). 2. See Daniel K. Tarullo, Norms and Institutions in Global Competition Policy, 94 AM. J. INT'L. L. 478 n.1 (2000). 3. See id. The basic argument for substituting a competition policy-based approach for anti-dumping law is that anti-dumping law's effect as a check on international predatory pricing can be achieved through domestic competition law. For the United States, this would entail relying on Sherman Act predatory pricing claims and the Robinson-Patman Act's anti-price discrimination provisions because exceptions available under the latter Act, such as the competi- tion and cost-justifications defenses, also ensure that primarily only anti-competitive price

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most