One of the main goals for the CPLG for 2016 is to support the Economic Committee to enact the instruction from the Structural Reform Ministerial Meeting (September 2015) in Cebu, Philippines) to “encourage member economies to undertake a self-assessment of barriers to competition, including a review of current competition laws and policies”. It was agreed in Lima that the EC and CPLG Chairs will consult on options for self-assessment for inter-sessional presentation to the Committee in March. The Committee will consider these options for integration into RAASR IAPs. Such options could include using the self-assessment tool, engaging an international organization (e.g. the OECD, the World Bank) to assist, conducting sectoral reviews or including competition policy considerations under Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA).

Other important developments of the CPLG meeting in Lima are the following:

1. APEC economies noted the importance of the leniency program, disruptive innovation, bid rigging, the work of elimination of bureaucratic barriers;
2. A seminar on investigative powers of competition authorities was endorsed and will be held in the margins of SOM 1 in 2017.
3. The World Bank presented a method in order to identify barriers that affect competition in the market.
4. The OECD made a presentation about the OECD Competition Assessment Toolkit. The presentation highlighted the challenges of restrictive government regulations for economic growth as well as the benefits of removing such regulations.