'Competition and Consumer
Policies Are Complementary'

KFTC hosts the 4th Seoul Int'l Competition Forum & 11th Int'l Workshop on Competition Policy

Korea Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kwon Ohseung told an international forum on fair trade that competitive policies and consumer policies are complementary with the goal of improving the welfare of consumers.
KFTC Chairman Kwon made the remark during the opening session of the 4th Seoul International Competition Forum held at the Hyundai Hotel in Gyeongju on September 5th. About 200 competition policy-makers and experts around the world gathered there to discuss competition policies during the forum and the 11th International Workshop on Competition Policy, organized by the Korea Fair Trade Commission and UNCTAD on September 6-7.
Kwon said, "Market competition, spurred by competition policies, brings about economic efficiency, thus leading to an expansion of the welfare of consumers, whereas consumer policies enable consumers to make rational choices, thus accelerating market competition in prices and quality."Competition authorities are responsible for implementing competition and consumer policies together or they are coming to good terms with consumer policy enforcement agencies to raise synergetic effects of both policies, he said.
The KFTC chairman said an increasing number of countries have been concluding regional trade agreements since the early 1990s. The number of countries which have inked regional trade pacts stood at 138 as of July last year,
and the number is expected to surge to 300 in 2008, said Kwon, adding that what is drawing more attention is a trend that regional trade pacts containing competition clauses are showing signs of increasing.
He noted that the move indicates that now that multilateral negotiations under the regime of the World Trade Organization have been suspended, countries are grappling to solve trade issues restricting competition by institutionalizing competition regulations on a bilateral and regional basis., so competition authorities have to deal with relations among regional trade pacts, competition laws and policies.
Yoon Soo-hyun, chef of International Relations Team at the KFTC, said the participants of the forum and workshop included 61 foreign competition policy-makers and competition experts from 61 countries. Fifty-one mid-level competition officials from 24 countries participated in the international workshop. They exchanged information on the implementation of competition laws of each country and made a heated discussion of five competition issues related to regional trade packs. nw

Korea Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kwon Ohseung speaks during the opening ceremony of the 11th International Workshop on Competition Policy.

About 200 competition policy-makers and experts around the world participate in the 11th International Workshop on Competition Policy, organized by the Korea Fair Trade Commission and UNCTAD.