Polityka handlowa a polityka konkurencji

Abstract

There is the increasing importance of understanding the link between competition and trade policy and of exploring the gaps and problems that at present exist in the application of these policies. Trade and competition policies are closely related. Competition policy is aimed at ensuring the efficient functioning of markets by the removal or control of restrictive business practices. Trade liberalisation serves to sharpen competition in the domestic markets while barriers to trade which shelter particular domestic industries may have anti-competitive effects on national markets. It has become apparent how closely trade problems are linked with domestic industrial, regional or even macro-economic policies with which competition policy is also concerned. The purpose of this article is to examine both conditions of conflict and conditions of synergy between competition policy and the various instruments of trade policy. The article is organised in three parts. The first one discusses a range of trade policy measures, in particular non-tariff barriers from the perspective of competition policy. The second part is concerned with trade-related competition issues, i.e. those practices by enterprises or, as appropriate, by governments in their commercial activities which fall within the scope of competition policy and which have implications for international trade. The last part deals with the development of international competition policy and the pressure for and against it. It briefly examines the past efforts to reach international understandings on this issue and summarises some of the main existing laws and procedures.