Takeaways
- Gan Lin, deputy minister of China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, said today, Sept. 18, that strengthening the construction of international competition rules and global competition governance is an “urgent need.”
- Gan made her remarks at the BRICS International Competition Conference in Moscow, Russia.
- SAMR has so far declined to join an agreement to abide by an interagency framework for antitrust investigations that was adopted by the International Competition Network in April.
- Gan declined to comment to Reorg M&A on whether SAMR intended to join the agreement.
Gan Lin, deputy minister of China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, or SAMR, said today, Sept. 18, during remarks at the BRICS International Competition Conference in Moscow, Russia that strengthening the construction of international competition rules and global competition governance is an “urgent need.”
Several bilateral meetings between representatives of BRICS competition authorities are expected to take place during the course of the three-day conference. The BRICS competition authorities consist of SAMR, Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service, the Competition Commission of India and the Competition Commission of South Africa.
SAMR has so far declined to join an agreement to abide by an interagency
framework for antitrust investigations that was adopted by the International Competition Network, or ICN, in April. As Reorg M&A reported, the U.S. and EU have been attempting to persuade SAMR to join
72 other competition agencies around the world by promising to comply with the ICN’s framework, which is not legally binding.
At a press conference a few hours after her public remarks, Gan declined to comment to Reorg M&A on whether SAMR intended to join the agreement. Two practitioners attending the conference speculated that SAMR will not join the agreement since Taiwan, with which China has frayed relations, is a member of the ICN.
Gan had said earlier during her public remarks that SAMR is working hard to implement competition policy and that it hopes “to strengthen communication and exchanges in reinforcing the implementation of competition policy, build a policy implementation framework in line with the characteristics of respective economic development, ensure that markets play a decisive role in resource allocation, and improve resource allocation efficiency and total factor productivity.”
--Alex Wilts