ABSTRACT
Competition policies are a part of some regional trading arrangements (RTAs). The World Trade Organization (WTO) has elements of competition law in its trade law, chiefly in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and there are a growing number of bilateral competition cooperation agreements. Consequently, this is an area of cross-border policy which is being developed at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. This raises the questions of why it is being developed simultaneously at all levels, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of the regional level vis-à-vis the bilateral and multilateral levels? And why have some regional trading arrangements developed competition policies while others have not?
