Markets Wired

The heads of the antitrust agencies of the United States, Canada and Mexico met today in Toronto, Canada, to discuss their ongoing work to ensure effective antitrust enforcement cooperation in our increasingly interconnected markets. The meetings were held among Chairwoman Edith Ramirez of the Federal Trade Commission, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, Canadian Commissioner of Competition John Pecman and President Alejandra Palacios Prieto of the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission.

The discussions covered a wide range of topics, including recent developments, effective agency litigation, disruptive innovation, cooperation between agencies, and technical assistance.

“The antitrust relationship among the United States, Canada, and Mexico is one of the most advanced in the world,” said Chairwoman Ramirez. “We work together on cross-border cases to ensure effective and compatible enforcement and on policy matters to promote convergence toward best practices. Our meeting enables us to strengthen our cooperation to enhance competition and benefit our consumers.”

“We are very fortunate to have such strong relationships with our partners in Canada and Mexico,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hesse. “In this increasingly globalized economy, close cooperation with our North American colleagues is important to protecting the competitiveness of our markets. These meetings are a useful part of our on-going enforcement collaboration, and they provide a great opportunity to discuss our shared competition policy challenges.”

The meetings build on the foundations laid by the 1995 antitrust cooperation agreement between the United States and Canada, the 1999 agreement between the United States and Mexico, and the 2001 agreement between Canada and Mexico. The agreements commit the antitrust agencies to cooperate and coordinate with each other to make their antitrust policies and enforcement as consistent and effective as possible.

The four agency heads also spoke at an enforcers’ roundtable at the spring conference of the Canadian Bar Association’s Competition Law Section, which included exchanges among the four agency heads on international cooperation, disruptive innovation, and merger remedies.

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