ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Competition Policy and Deregulation were two of the fifteen specific areas identified
in APEC’s Action Plan framework for achieving the Bogor goals (APEC 1995). Both Individual and Collective Action Plans were required as part of a mechanism for assessing progress in each of the various policy areas. The APEC Committee on Trade and Investment (CTI) noted the central role of competition policy in enhancing economic efficiency but also realised that business globalisation is creating new challenges for this policy area. As noted in the PAFTAD 25 Conference program, the competition area is a ‘highly complicated issue’. Complexity is added by the increasing flow of cross-border economic transactions and by the Region’s economic diversity. Trans-national markets in which business is conducted combine with national jurisdictions in which policy is conducted (see Lloyd and Vautier 1999). Technology and business organisation are also changing rapidly. As a consequence of these developments, the ability of an individual sovereign power to regulate business either within or beyond its jurisdiction is diminishing. Whether or not there is a need to regulate is a separate question.
