The convergence of competition law within APEC and the CER agreement

This chapter does not start from any presumption that the convergence of government policies or commercial practices between countries is an easy, clear-cut or necessarily desirable trend from an international viewpoint.1 The welfare implications of policy convergence may be indeterminate in general terms, and need to be demonstrated in particular cases. This section sets up a framework to demonstrate the various classes of international commercial transactions. In turn, this allows us to analyse the costs of differential treatment of these transactions, and thus to analyse what convergence of competition law between countries might involve and what effects it might have.