Annual Report 1996/97 - Growing Bureau involvement on the international front

During the year, the Bureau contributed to the development and advancement of competition policy at a number of multilateral fora, and through bilateral meetings with the U.S. and other important trading partners. It also coordinated joint enforcement activities with foreign competition authorities.

Multilaterally, the Bureau continued to participate actively in the Competition Law and Policy Committee and the Joint Group on Trade and Competition of the OECD, with particular focus on the converging interrelationship between trade and competition policies, on competition and regulation, and on international cooperation.

As a member of the OECD Committee on Consumer Policy, the Bureau participated in an international forum on Gateways to the Global Market: Consumers and Electronic Commerce. The conference covered such diverse issues as cryptography, privacy and consumer fraud as they impact on global electronic commerce. Participants, including government officials, consumer representatives and members of the private sector, are working towards the establishment of principles for consumer protection in the world of cyberspace.

The Bureau is also a participant in the International Marketing Supervision Network (IMSN), which has been chaired by Canada since September 1996. The IMSN is an informal alliance of 29 OECD member countries. Its members regularly exchange information with a view to promoting international co-operation in detecting and fighting unfair and deceptive marketing practices.

In the North American context, the Bureau continued to contribute to the work of the NAFTA Working Group on Trade and Competition, which is discussing the relationship between competition laws and policies and trade in the free trade area. The Bureau has also been involved in western hemisphere competition policy issues as a member of the Working Group on Competition Policy, which is engaged in the discussions aimed at creating the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Finally, the Bureau participated in the second APEC workshop on Competition Policy and Deregulation in Davao City, Phillipines.

At the WTO, the Bureau actively encouraged the establishment of a Working Group on the Interaction between Trade and Competition Policy. The Bureau has also maintained its involvement in the Inter-governmental Group of Experts on Competition Policy of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

As it has in past years, the Bureau continued to provide technical assistance both bilaterally and in support of UNCTAD and OECD multilateral programs, this year to Burundi, El Salvador, the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Ukraine.

The growing number and increasing complexity of cross-border cases, especially with the U.S., bring to the forefront the international dimension of the Bureau's enforcement activities and continue to underline the need for enhanced international cooperation, consultations, coordinated enforcement actions and dispute avoidance. During the year, the Bureau also participated in bilateral meetings with competition law authorities from other jurisdictions.

Work also continued towards finalizing a Canada-European Community Agreement by the end of 1997. Once finalized, the Agreement will codify a state-of-the-art approach to bilateral cooperation and coordination in competition law enforcement. It will contribute to ensuring that the benefits of multilateral trade liberalization are not hindered by private restraints to trade. It will also be reflective of the close cooperation that exists between the competition authorities of Canada and the European Union.

At the case level, there continued to be a substantial number of complex notifications from a variety of foreign competition authorities. During the 1996-1997 fiscal year, the Bureau received 38 notifications from foreign competition authorities and sent 17 notifications to foreign authorities or governments, in compliance with the 1995 Canada-U.S. Cooperation Agreement and the 1995 Revised OECD Recommendation. The majority of these notifications involved contacts with U.S. antitrust enforcement authorities.