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Topics handled by WTO committees and agreements
 Issues covered by the WTO’s committees and agreements

Competition policy

Work in the WTO on investment and competition policy has largely taken the form of responses to specific trade policy issues, rather than a look at the broad picture.

During the 1996 Ministerial Conference in Singapore, ministers decided to set up two working groups to look more generally at the relationships between trade, on the one hand, and investment and competition policies, on the other.

The working groups’ tasks are analytical and exploratory. They will not negotiate new rules or commitments. The ministers made clear that no decision had been reached on whether there will be negotiations in the future, and that any discussions cannot develop into negotiations without a clear consensus decision.

Topics handled by WTO committees and agreements

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Introduction back to top

Brief information about competition policy work in the WTO Links to the section on competition policy in the WTO guide “Understanding the WTO”.

More detailed background on competition policy work in the WTO Links to information notes on issues raised in the lead-up to the 1999 Ministerial Conference in Seattle

  
  
The mandate back to top

The declaration of the 1996 Ministerial Conference in Singapore See decision item 20

  
  
Work on competition policy in the WTO, and official documents  back to top

Work on this subject is handled by the Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy.
  

Search Documents Online
 General documents on competition policy bear the document code WT/WGTCP/* (where * takes additional values)
These links open a new window: allow a moment for the results to appear.

  • Annual reports of the Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy to the General Council (Document code WT/WGTCP/* and keyword “report”)     > search     > help

  • Minutes of the working group’s meetings (Document code WT/WGTCP/M/*)     > search     > help

  • Working documents on competition policy (Document code WT/WGTCP/W/*)

    •     > search
  • Member country representatives for the Working Group on the interaction between Trade and competition policy (Document code WT/WGTCP/INF/*)    > search

You can perform more sophisticated searches from the Documents Online search facility (opens in new window) by defining multiple search criteria such as document code, full text search or document date.

  
Background note by the WTO Secretariat on how these principles relate to competition policy:

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