EU and US set to clash over global competition forum

Date: 15/10/1998

By Chris Johnstone

COMPETITION Commissioner Karel van Miert and US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky are likely to clash over tentative moves to develop a world forum to tackle business issues when the two come face to face next week.

Van Miert has long been calling for closer international cooperation on competition issues, and has suggested that the World Trade Organisation is best-placed to assume the role.

But Barshefsky is expected to voice US reservations about an enhanced role for the global trade body, pointing out that many countries do not have national competition watchdogs with real teeth and that even Japan's authority, which has impressive powers on paper, does not use them.

The US is also worried that an international competition forum or authority could be used by developing countries to protest against anti-dumping actions by industrialised nations. “I do not see how this could be avoided,” said one diplomat.

The WTO is also expected to dominate Barshefsky's talks with Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan next Monday (19 October).

Brittan is likely to get a mixed message from his US counterpart, who is certain to raise ongoing trade disputes with the EU as the US Congress puts increasing pressure on the Clinton administration to get results in battles with the Union over its banana regime and a ban on imports of hormone-treated US beef.

But the two are expected to agree on a basic list of barriers to trade which should be tackled as part of the Transatlantic Partnership.

The US is also likely to signal an early end to the rift with Brittan over how to take forward the next round of trade liberalisation talks.

Washington initially baulked at the Commissioner's call for the Millennium Round of trade talks to be comprehensive, with all issues interlinked and up for discussion. The US preferred a sector-by-sector approach, fearing a more ambitious strategy would not deliver results for several years. But diplomats say the differences between the two have narrowed recently.