FAS and Costa-Rica Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce discussed cooperation
On 27 March 2017, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov held talks with the leadership of Costa-Rica Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (San Jose, Costa Rica). The Ministry was represented by the Minister, Janine Dinarte Romero; Deputy Minister, Carlos Romero Mora Gomez; Deputy Head of the Competition Commission, Janine Montero Bogantes.
The parties discussed a wide range of issues of mutual interest. First of allAndrey Tsyganov thanked his Costa-Rica colleagues for supporting Russian initiatives to discuss at UNCTAD platform strengthening multilateral international cooperation between competition authorities in preventing anticompetitive actions of transnational corporations that have global nature.
The Russian Federation put forward this initiative at a regular session of UNCTAD Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy (IEG) in October 2016. FAS proposals were supported by more than 20 countries, including Costa-Rica. As a result, the agenda of the 16th session of UNCTAD IEG in July 2017 will comprise special meetings on this field.
Preparing to the event, FAS drafted a Toolkit for International Cooperation between competition authorities on preventing restrictive business practices of transnational corporations and cross-border violations of competition rules. The draft was handed over to the Costa-Rican colleagues during the talks.
It was Costa-Rica that several years ago, at the 6th UN Conference on reviewing all aspects of the UN Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices (Geneva, 2010) already made proposals to intensify international cooperation between competition authorities and making relevant amendments and additions to the Set.
The Parties agreed that currently there are quite a number of areas of economic development that require intensified international cooperation and result-oriented interaction between competition authorities. Such examples were mentioned as global food products chains, IT markets, pharmaceuticals where individual actions of the national competition authorities are insufficient to counter global violations of the competition rules.
Carlos Romero Mora Gomez explained how Costa Rica jointed OECD, and outlines the legislative and institutional reforms designated to follow OECD recommendations. It is expected that in June 2017 OECD Competition Committee will consider a report on ascending OECD in the part of competition law and policy. Andrey Tsyganov pointed out that Russia had passed this serious exam successfully and in 2013 OECD officially recognized that Russian antimonopoly law and enforcement practice meet OECD requirements. Andrey Tsuganov confirmed FAS readiness to offer the necessary support and assistance to Costa Rican colleagues to enable successful ascending.
Representatives of Costa Rica Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce showed a significant interest to the basic FAS cases against large national corporations, particularly, Google and Apple. Andrey Tsyganov discussed in detail the essence of their violations of the antimonopoly law, the investigations and the outcome, and the sanctions applied by FAS.
A considerable part of the talks focused on the prospects of developing bilateral cooperation between the competition authorities of Russia and Costa Rica. Andrey Tsyganov informed the colleagues about FAS calendar of international events and invited them to take part in a major one – St Petersburg International Legal Forum, the Competition Week in Russia, sessions of International Working Groups and about the efforts of FAS Centre for Education and Methodics. Summing up the talks, the Parties expressed their hopes for strengthening cooperation between FAS and Costa Rica Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce.