Policy Externalities and High-Tech Rivalry: Competition and Multilateral Cooperation Beyond the WTO

Governments have increasingly been giving attention to the need for, and prospects of, ensuring contestability of markets through international agreements. This paper explores what has been achieved so far in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and what might be done to further enhance...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Leiden journal of international law 1996-06, Vol.9 (2), p.273-318
Main Authors: Hoekman, Bernard M., Mavroidis, Petros C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
LEADING ARTICLES
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Governments have increasingly been giving attention to the need for, and prospects of, ensuring contestability of markets through international agreements. This paper explores what has been achieved so far in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and what might be done to further enhance the ‘competition-friendliness’ of the multilateral trading system. The case of high-technology industrial rivalry is used for concreteness. High-tech is interesting because it cuts across many of the issues that are relevant from a systemic perspective, both ‘old’ (market access) and ‘new’ (investment, antitrust). We conclude that greater contestability of regulatory regimes in domestic legal orders may be beneficial. This can be pursued by giving private parties the right to contest actions of WTO member states before national courts.
ISSN:0922-1565
1478-9698
DOI:10.1017/S0922156596000210