An APEC Workshop was held on Competition Policy and Deregulation in Davao City, Philippines on 17-18 August 1996.

The Workshop covered the following agenda topics:

• The objectives of and mechanisms for implementing competition policy;

• The objectives of competition law and the role for competition laws and enforcement agencies for achieving those objectives;

• The concepts of deregulation and their interrelationships with competition policy;

• Open markets as an approach to competition policy;

• Technical assistance; and

• Information gathering.

The Workshop discussions took place in the context of the Osaka Action Agenda on Competition Policy and Deregulation. In that context the Workshop noted:

• the importance of the transparency of competition policies and regulation;

• the central role of a sound competition policy in enhancing economic efficiency;

• the need to gather information and promote dialogue on and study the interrelationship between competition policy and/or laws and other policies related to trade and investment and the need to eliminate trade and investment distortions arising from domestic regulations which not only impede free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region but also are more trade and/or investment restricting than necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective;

• the need to consider the openness of markets in the implementation of competition law and policy;

• that the globalisation of business is creating new challenges for competition policy;

• the importance of maintaining a dialogue with a view to building a common understanding of the existing body of APEC economies' competition policies and/or laws;

• that laws dealing with market power issues are a significant element of policies designed to reduce barriers to entry and improve resource allocation in economies;

• that competition principles play a key role in shaping approaches to deregulation and regulatory reform;

• the need to ensure that competition laws and regulation meet their stipulated objectives without creating unnecessary barriers to entry;

• the need to consider developing a framework within which APEC economies pursue competition and regulatory policies;

• that competition policy and regulatory reform are complemeneary and need to be pursued coherently and simultaneously; and

• that regulatory policy should focus on the extent to which regulation is well designed rather than focusing on the quantity of regulation.

The Chinese Taipei delegation presented a proposal for the development of a comprehensive APEC competition policy and law data base, which will be based in Chinese Taipei. Delegations noted that the proposal raises wide ranging issues. The Workshop accordingly agreed that delegations would provide written comments to the Chinese Taipei CTI coordination by 30 September 1996. Chinese Taipei agreed to revise the proposal taking account of member economies comments, in consultation with the Convenor. It was agreed that Chinese Taipei would report back at the first meeting of CTI, in January 1997.

Japan tabled an APEC/PFP project proposal on competition policy for consideration by Workshop participants. The workshop endorsed the revised PFP proposal to the CTI subject to the following conditions:

1. if available, presenters will circulate case studies in advance of course; and

2. the course, including the content of the curriculum, will be reviewed after the first seminar.

The Workshop agreed to recommend to the CTI that a further APEC workshop on Competition Policy and Deregulation be held in 1997. The Workshop requested the Convenor to prepare a proposal on the content and timing of the Workshop for the consideration of the first CTI meeting in 1997.

The Workshop reached agreement on the Collective Action Matrices on Competition Policy and Deregulation. These are attached.