On February 1, the 4th China-U.S. High-level Anti-Monopoly Dialogue was held in Beijing. The Dialogue was jointly held by the National Development and Reform Commission, MOFCOM, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, US Federal Trade Commission and US Department of Justice. Deputy Head of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Wang Jiangping, attended the event and spoke on the theme of “the importance of competition policies for economic growth, technical innovation and country governance”.
Wagg pointed out in the Dialogue that, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce is maintaining the principle of “easy entry and rigorous regulation”, aiming to vitalize the market while regulate the market order through competition policies. In the past two years, the countrywide regulatory departments of industry and commerce handled 33 antitrust cases and 25 of them were closed. They also investigated 21 cases that involved exploiting administrative power to eliminate and restrict competitions. Wang said that the competition policies, as the essential foundation for constructing economic policies, are significant because they realize the maximization of important element efficiency through encouraging competitions and vitalizing the market. The government should treat all market entities equally, since fair competition reviewing mechanisms have important practical meanings for standardize and regulate governmental activities.
In the high-level Dialogue, the antitrust agencies of China and the US also exchanged views on fair competition review, coordination between competition policies and trade and industrial policies, and on their future technical cooperation. On February 2, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, US Federal Trade Commission, and US Department of Justice held conversations over topics such antitrust efforts in Internet, the Internet provisions in Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, antitrust efforts in intellectual property, and protection of consumers’ rights and interests.
