Competition law and developing countries: Overarching themes from Africa, cartels and corruption, and mergers

In this edition we present an overarching view of competition law and developing countries, then pick up themes, such as cartels, corruption and mergers, from the “Antitrust and developing and emerging economies” annual Concurrences review Conference held on November 1st, 2019, at the New York University School of Law. We start with Eleanor Fox and Mor Bakhoum’s essay, drawn from their new book, asking what competition law can do for Africa, and answering with both detail and perspective, national, regional and continental, by describing the challenges, imagining the promise, and offering pathways to get there. We then proceed to materials more specifically reflecting the panels at the November 2019 edition of the “Antitrust and developing and emerging economies” Conference. We start with Paula Azevedo Silveira and Paula Baqueiro’s piece regarding corruption in Brazilian public procurement, Kevin Davis’s discussion of the complementarities and tensions between anti-cartel and anti corruption enforcement, and Gönenç Gürkaynak’s advice on compliance advisement in the integrated area of anti-cartel and anti corruption policies. Then we turn to mergers. First, Daniel Rubinfeld’s summary and comment on the panel he moderated on mergers and developing countries featuring whether and how a developing country competition agency should incorporate non-competition goals. We include Marcio de Oliveira and Luis Batista’s paper on merger guidelines of CADE in Brazil, focusing on coordinated effects among competitors, and also Liberty Mncube, Laurie Binge and Helen Kean’s analysis on global mergers assessment and remedies implemented in South Africa. We present George Paul’s overview of the consumer welfare standard in international competition enforcement. Finally, Arsenio Balisacan’s paper targets more specifically competition policy in the Philippines ; Timothy Hughes’s piece focuses on the US FTC’s technical assistance programs ; and Pablo Trevisán’s covers the Argentine competition regime.