ABSTRACT
It is all too often assumed that, when the government retreats, what remains is the market. Hence, many expect deregulation to automatically usher in truly competitive capitalism. In the era of deregulation, strict competition policy is even more vital. For one thing, in case after case, firms and industry associations have reacted to government deregulation by putting in place their own self-regulation to fix prices and/or stifle competition. Second, if imports are blocked by industry association action rather than government action, there is no recourse to the World Trade Organization, whose rules apply only to government measures. Criminal prosecutions for antitrust violations are almost unheard of—only ten cases between the end of World War II and the late 1990s. Beginning with the Structural Impediments Initiative of the first Bush administration, Washington pressed Tokyo to increase JFTC powers and action. Enforcement seems to depend on the political clout of the industry.
