BRICS COMPETITION AUTHORITIES DISCUSSED THEIR COLLABORATION

The parties met at Petersburg International Economic Forum to exchange proposals and Action Plans

On 6 June 2019, the SPIEF agenda included a meeting of BRICS Coordination Committee on Antimonopoly Policy.

Head of Russian delegation, Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy underlined successful collaboration between BRICS competition authorities in all existing formats: under the frame of the Memorandum of understanding in the field of BRICS collaboration in competition law and policy, BRICS Coordination Committee on Antimonopoly Policy and BRICS Working Groups for studying competition issues on socially important markets.

He pointed out that in 2020 the Memorandum will be extended indefinitely; the decision about it will be formalized in the text of the Joint Statement of Head of BRICS Competition Authorities issued upon the VI BRICS Competition Conference in Moscow in September 2019.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy reminded of the Working Groups formed by BRICS antimonopoly authorities, the format was defined by BRICS Coordination Committee in March 2018 in New Delhi. Each Working Group is chaired or co-chaired by a BRICS competition body: Pharmaceuticals WG – Russia, food products – South Africa, car manufacturing – India and South Africa, digital economy – Brazil. Deputy Head of FAS suggested for China to also co-chair any of the Working Groups.

The next sessions of the Working Groups will take place at VI BRICS Competition Conference.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy also described the work of BRICS Antimonopoly Centre that had been opened in 2018 with support of National Research University – Higher School of Economics.

He said that the mission of the Centre is to unite competition authorities and research institutions of BRICS economies in a common public-academic partnership.

Payal Malik, an economic advisor, Head of the Economic Division, India’s Competition Commission, thanked Russia for the assistance and experience transferred through various consultations, meetings and international events. Representing the agency that chairs WG on car manufacturing, she outlined the efforts of the Commission under the frame of this WG.

“We’d like to consider car manufacturing from two points of view: the academic community - a research group at London School of Economics is now working on it – and the authorities. A report on studying the industry will be presented at the BRICS Conference in September”, clarified Ms. Payal Malik.

Tembinkosi Bonakele, Head of South African Competition Commission, pointed out that each WG has different activities, and the methods used depend directly on the industry in question. For example, SA Commission concluded that that dialogue between the regulator and business at Food WG is inefficient. Tembinkosi Bonakele also shared an experience of joint market studies by the academic community and the authorities.

The discussion participants were please to note the progress in preparing the BRICS Conference in Moscow, which traditionally allows considering the outcome of the efforts of BRICS competition authorities in the analyzed socially important markets in different formats.

Representatives of the Antimonopoly Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation of the People’s Republic of China – Deputy Director Hu Lefu and Director of Monopoly Agreement Office, Anti-Monopoly Bureau, Zhao Chunlei. Other members of FAS delegation also included Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenishev and Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophei Nizhegorodtsev.