adminTinashe Makichi : Business Reporter
The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa Competition Commission said the establishment of a regional one-stop shop competition authority is critical in carrying out advocacy programmes which can be financially challenging for individual member countries. Article 55 of the treaty establishing COMESA sets out the foundation for the development of a competition policy in the Common Market. To realise this objective, the COMESA Treaty provides in Article 55(3) and in compliance with this Article, COMESA adopted a regional competition policy through the publication of the COMESA Competition Regulations.The regulations call for the regional competition authority to support member states undertaking competition advocacy programmes, which can be financially challenging for individual countries.
“There is no doubt that the establishment of a regional competition authority provides advantages to those member states which are part of the regional grouping.
“In the same vein a regional competition body becomes very important for those Member States that do not have competition laws in place,” said COMESA Competition Commission chief executive George Lipimile.
“By creating a one-stop shop competition authority, the regulations are also aimed at creating a more business-friendly environment with cost savings and time efficiencies, with the avoidance of regulatory duplications, in addition to providing legal certainty to enterprises.”
He said this plays a huge role in reducing the cost of doing business in the region while at the same time attracting investment inflows.
The recent example is the large international merger involving SABMiller and InBev. SABMiller has operations in a majority of the member states in the Common Market and as such would have notified at least six countries.
The notification fees could have been at been at least $600 000 and the six different decisions from each different jurisdiction would have trickled in at varying paces.
“Now, with a regional authority such as the COMESA Competition Commission, the notification fees are capped at $200 000 and the number of filings and decisions is greatly reduced to one.
“This is a clear indication that having a one-stop shop competition authority in the region is indeed to the benefit of investors,” said Mr Lipimile.
The merger notification is a single one, to a single authority with a single decision, saving the firms time and money on their investments. Suffice to say, this merger was not notified to the Commission because InBev did not meet the thresholds for notification.
The benefits of a one-stop shop can only be realised when there is uniformity in the interpretation and application of competition laws throughout the Common Market.
Mr Lipimile said there is now growing recognition of the need for closer and deeper cooperation on regional antitrust issues.
“As you are surely aware, the Commission has recently concluded bilateral agreements with a number of national competition authorities in the Common Market, namely Swaziland, Malawi, Seychelles and Kenya, to establish a channel for bilateral cooperation with a view to enhancing the enforcement of competition laws in the Common Market.
“This notwithstanding, challenges still remain in the implementation of regulations at regional level. These notably include; the interplay of the Regulations with competition laws of other regional economic blocs for those member states belonging to more than one regional economic blocs,” he said.
Mr Lipimile said if member states stand together in the fight against anticompetitive conduct, the deterrent effect will be multiplied.
“Our joint impact will be stronger than the sum of all our individual interventions. Competition enforcements will only be successful when businesses, consumers and governments become fully aware of the benefits that competitive markets bring.”
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