BRICS Antitrust Committee meets in Geneva – The Zimbabwe Mail

Geneva, Switzerland,– The BRICS Antitrust Coordination Committee held an important meeting on July 2, 2024 in Geneva under the chairmanship of Russia. The event brought together the heads of competition authorities from the BRICS countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – as well as new members: Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

The meeting underlined BRICS’ commitment to promoting a competitive environment that benefits both businesses and consumers. The Russian delegation proposed launching an expanded platform of cooperation to institutionalize and deepen the BRICS partnership towards an inclusive, diverse and equitable economic order. This initiative, called BRICS Global Action Platform on Fair Market Competition, was developed by the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Center.

Support for enhanced antitrust cooperation

The proposal received broad support from representatives of antitrust agencies, who expressed their approval for accelerating the institutionalization of antitrust cooperation. The BRICS Center committed to providing intellectual resources to facilitate the launch of this Platform for Action.

The meeting also covered the procedure for accession of new member states to the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in the Field of Competition Law and Policy of BRICS countries, originally signed on May 19, 2016 in St. Petersburg. Participants shared significant results of their competition authorities, highlighting progress in promoting fair competition practices and resolving antitrust issues.

A key outcome of the meeting was the adoption of the Joint Statement of the Heads of BRICS Competition Authorities, consolidating efforts to maintain healthy competition in markets of societal importance.

The Future of BRICS Antitrust Cooperation

Alexey Ivanov, Director of the BRICS Competition Law and Policy Center, noted: “During the Russian presidency, given the expansion of BRICS, a window of opportunity is opening up, allowing antitrust cooperation in the BRICS format to reach a new qualitative level. This will include joint investigations into the activities of international cartels, global monopolies and economic concentration transactions.”

Ivanov stressed that the primary function of the proposed Platform for Action is to assist competition authorities by providing technical and analytical support, as well as to foster expertise and research on competition policy among member states. The ambition is to create a BRICS-focused centre of expertise to create and share knowledge in the global marketplace of ideas, which is currently dominated by Western legacy institutions.

A strategic vision for global economic impact

Ivanov added: “This platform, if implemented, will allow BRICS antitrust regulators to more actively influence the global architecture of economic relations. It is a mechanism for harmonizing positions on jointly influencing the global economy, markets and value chains.”

He noted that BRICS governments have already supported the idea of ​​establishing a grain exchange, and this initiative is part of a broader strategy to integrate and facilitate agreements across sectors. Ivanov concluded: “Governing industries organized into global value chains requires an approach embedded in a three-dimensional value chain perspective, as opposed to narrow, geographically limited markets.”

The meeting concluded with a renewed sense of cooperation and strategic vision, laying the foundation for future progress in antitrust cooperation between the BRICS countries and their new members.

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