w88 online live casino:Competition policy should become a basic economic policy
(Source: "China Reform" Date:2013Year11month1日）
Reporter Du Ke 2008Year88558_85965Year. What is the effect of the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law? In the context of comprehensively deepening reforms, what role should and can the Anti-Monopoly Law play? Regarding these issues, a reporter from Caixin's "China Reform" interviewedProfessor Huang Yong, Director of the Competition Law Center of the w88 casino and Deputy Leader of the Expert Advisory Group of the Anti-Monopoly Commission of the State Council。
As a full participant in the formulation of the Anti-Monopoly Law and supporting regulations, w88 online live casino has been paying close attention to the progress of the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law.w88 online live casino believes that this law can be said to be implemented in adversity, and its role has been greatly restricted from the beginning. He pointed out that breaking up administrative monopoly not only requires the Anti-Monopoly Law, but also requires top-level design changes in the political and economic system. In response to calls from all walks of life to break monopolies, promote competition, and accelerate reforms in basic industries, w88 online live casino said that the practical advancement of reforms will provide a good policy environment for the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law, and the Anti-Monopoly Law will provide operable space and effective policy tools for the implementation of reforms.
5Year Law Enforcement Grows in Adversity
Caixin "China Reform": "Anti-Monopoly Law" from2008Year8Started implementation in January, has been implemented so far5It has been 11755_11771| years, how do you evaluate its law enforcement effectiveness?
w88 online live casino:5In the early years of the implementation of such a basic law for the market economy, it should be said that the development of the Anti-Monopoly Law has been greatly restricted. There are certain limitations in terms of the combination of national economic policy tools and the role that the law itself should play. There are several reasons for this situation. First, when the Anti-Monopoly Law was implemented, it was facing the international financial crisis. The Chinese government followed tradition and used more administrative power and industrial policy tools to deal with the crisis. Because the Anti-Monopoly Law corrects market failures to ensure full competition in the market. In China, it also bears the responsibility of breaking the administrative monopoly. With the regression of marketization in certain fields, the basic conditions for the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law have undoubtedly been weakened. It can be said that the Anti-Monopoly Law was implemented in adverse circumstances.
Although the macro environment is not good, but5The implementation over the past few years has made great progress. As far as the law enforcement by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce is concerned, the National Development and Reform Commission investigated and dealt with socially influential cases such as the LCD panel case and the milk powder enterprise price monopoly case, and the Ministry of Commerce reviewed700Multiple operator concentration cases, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce also investigated and announced the Tetra Pak case, etc.20Yu cases. In addition, the court system also accepts a large number of antitrust civil litigation cases, especially2012After the promulgation of the judicial interpretation of the Anti-Monopoly Law in 2019, the number of related cases has increased exponentially, including Ruibangyonghe v. Johnson & Johnson and Huawei v.Inter Digital13166_13233
At the beginning, during the legislative stage of the Anti-Monopoly Law, except for a few multinational companies that were often involved in anti-monopoly issues, which paid more attention to the drafting of the law, state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and industry associations did not express widespread concern. After the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law, some large foreign companies have been following the development of the Anti-Monopoly Law and constantly communicating with the government and scholars. Until now, some state-owned enterprises have also realized the importance and far-reaching impact of this law, and have gradually carried out training on the Anti-Monopoly Law, participated in academic and practical symposiums and seminars, and produced compliance manuals. I'm glad to see this change. Of course, we must also realize that this is only at the stage of popularizing the Anti-Monopoly Law, and is still far from playing its role as an "economic constitution" and a "magna carta of free enterprise" in its true sense.
To give full play to the due role of the Anti-Monopoly Law, we must also make efforts in improving the macro-external environment, eliminating professional and technical barriers, raising the level of social awareness and the attention of decision-makers. Elevating competition policy, including the Anti-Monopoly Law, to the top level of the national political and economic system reform is a top priority.
Competition policy must be elevated to top-level design
Caixin's "China Reform": The "Anti-Monopoly Law" has legalized competition policy and stipulated that the Anti-Monopoly Commission "study and formulate relevant competition policies." Why do you propose to elevate competition policy to the level of top-level design?
w88 online live casino: The "Anti-Monopoly Law" is a law that protects competition. In countries with mature market economies, it mainly targets economic monopolies and prevents companies from destroying competition through mergers, implementing monopoly agreements, or abusing market dominance, harming consumer interests, and hindering the improvement of product and service quality, technological progress, and innovation. Comparatively speaking, China's current problem of insufficient competitiveness is different from that of developed countries. It is mainly reflected in monopoly industries such as telecommunications, finance, electric power, and railway transportation. Because it is in the process of transforming from a planned economy to a market economy, the market structure created by administrative orders, policies, and regulations left over from history still has many market entry barriers, resulting in insufficient competitiveness. The monopoly power under the leadership of the government was already strong, but it also encountered the international financial crisis, and the visible hand was further strengthened. Therefore, the implementation of competition policy first requires the state to break monopoly at the policy level, relax entry, and ensure market competitiveness. This also requires continuing to deepen the reform of the economic system and political system.
As for the specific formulation of competition policy, according to the current administrative system and the division of responsibilities of relevant departments, its decision-making is jointly participated, managed and coordinated by multiple member units of the State Council Anti-Monopoly Commission. Most of the member units are competent departments of various industries. They themselves are responsible for the formulation and implementation of industrial policies and regulatory policies for their own industries. At the same time, there are certain difficulties in coordinating with competition policies. The enforcement agencies of the Anti-Monopoly Law also face similar problems. The w88 policy, foreign investment policy and competition policy in charge of the Ministry of Commerce need to be coordinated. There are also areas that need coordination between the macro-control policy (industrial policy) and competition policy in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission. In practice, competition policy plays a very weak role in the policy-making systems of these sectors.
Caixin's "China Reform": In your opinion, how can competition policy be elevated to the level of top-level design and become the country's basic economic policy?
Huang Yong: Fundamentally speaking, competition policy should be the basic economic policy (or leading economic policy) for the country to build a socialist market economic system. Over the past year or so, when I have trained government officials on many occasions, I have first talked about competition policy. In short, competition policy is all about deregulation, openness and marketization. In a mature market economy country, basic economic policies include fiscal policy, financial and monetary policy, w88 policy and competition policy. In China, the Constitution has established that the country implements a socialist market economy. Currently, in the process of transforming from a planned economy to a market economy, overall, most goods and services are already highly market-oriented, and competition policy is already playing a role. However, in basic industries, such as electricity, etc.7Large industries are still closed and monopolized or partially monopolized. Although many central government documents have emphasized the need to gradually introduce competition mechanisms into these monopolized industries and promote the process of marketization, this has always been difficult to achieve. For example, regarding the issue of salt industry monopoly, I have participated in reform demonstration plans in this area several times.1995CountryRelease industrial saltAfter market,You should follow the country’s regulationsLawRegulations enforcement. But so far,The industrial salt market still cannot get out of the monopoly cycle. These circumstances show that competition policy ranks very low in the country's economic policy and has not yet been listed as a basic policy, while industrial policy is constantly being introduced and is regarded as a panacea to promote China's economic development.
In fact, the impact of industrial policies on enterprises is often not "looking to the market" but "looking to the government" - this stems from the governance inertia in the era of planned economy. There are many lessons learned in this regard. Take the photovoltaic industry as an example. Eighty to ninety percent of the market for the photovoltaic industry is abroad. If you are "looking at the market", as the owner of a company, even if you have10billion yuan, the supply and demand of the entire market, legal and w88 risks in overseas markets, investment benefits and other issues will also be taken into consideration. Especially when everyone is rushing in, they will carefully evaluate the risks and benefits of continuing to launch projects. But if it is "looking to the government", companies will make non-market choices. The logic of industrial policy operation is that the finance department allocates part of the money and allocates it layer by layer according to the administrative level. Enterprises are focused on the government's money all day long. In order to obtain financial subsidies from governments at all levels and loans from state-owned banks, they blindly expand production capacity and sell products overseas at low prices. As a result, photovoltaic production capacity expanded rapidly in a short period of time and blossomed everywhere. Not only did it lead to "double-reverse" investigations in Europe and the United States, the company itself also suffered heavy losses and faced bankruptcy.
We must clearly realize that most of China's industries will be fully opened up sooner or later. Only when the domestic market is fully competitive and a good domestic competitive environment is continuously cultivated so that good companies can stand out in the competition can they have strong international competitiveness. China's Internet industry is a typical example of relying on competition to promote development. Among the many industries in China, the Internet industry is one of the very few that has developed in a completely competitive environment and can compete with its American and European counterparts. With the continuous advancement of business development, according to the laws of the market, Internet companies will inevitably penetrate into traditional industries, especially traditional monopoly industries, and compete with national teams in these industries. For example, many Internet companies are currently actively expanding into the financial field, third-party payment,P2PLoan and other businesses are booming, competing with UnionPay and traditional banks. Similarly, in the telecommunications industry, the competition and challenges brought by WeChat are prompting major changes in the telecommunications industry structure. As the Internet industry penetrates traditional monopoly industries, it will inevitably impact the previous interest structure, which may trigger a large number of behaviors that restrict competition. The Anti-Monopoly Law will become a powerful legal weapon to protect competition and stimulate innovation.
It needs to be pointed out in particular that when new things, new technologies and new business models emerge, the government must be cautious in its public policy choices. First, it is necessary to see whether existing laws can regulate them. Instead of choosing to suppress or crack down, they should have an open attitude, take advantage of the situation, and welcome unexpected business model innovations that may be hidden.
The leadership collective of this term emphasizes on properly handling the relationship between the government and the market, proposing that "what belongs to the government belongs to the government, and what belongs to the market belongs to the market." Now we are reducing approvals and advancing reforms towards a market-led approach to resource allocation. If competition policy can be regarded as a basic economic policy from now on, treated equally with industrial policy, or even regarded as more important than industrial policy, then China's development will be able to move forward in the direction of mature marketization and rule of law.
Of course, competition policy cannot completely replace industrial policy in the short term. At a minimum, in the process of formulating industrial policies, we must establish the following thinking: the formulation, implementation and evaluation of industrial policies must incorporate the concepts and guarantees of competition policy. For example, it is unacceptable for the government to use taxpayers' money to arbitrarily subsidize state-owned enterprises. It must be approved by the National People's Congress and clearly stated in the public budget accounts, and the performance of the subsidy must be evaluated. On the contrary, if competition policy is only considered a general policy and is not even mentioned as having general policy status, the role played by the Anti-Monopoly Law will be relatively limited.
It also needs to be emphasized that whether it is fiscal policy, monetary policy, w88 policy, competition policy, or industrial policy, the protection of the rule of law is crucial. Comparing the rescue measures taken by China and the United States after the outbreak of the financial crisis, the measures initially proposed by the United States7000100 million dollar bailout plan and China4The implementation effects of the trillion-yuan bailout plan are very different due to different procedures. In the United States, whoever raises this issue, discusses it, reviews it, and approves it all has laws to follow. Although it is not as "efficient" as our administrative leadership, it is more effective in the long run.
Caixin's "China Reform": What role can the Anti-Monopoly Law play in this process?
w88 online live casino: The "Anti-Monopoly Law" can solve many technical problems. For example, if the photovoltaic industry needs to connect to the power grid in China, the "Anti-Monopoly Law" can play a role in investigating whether electric power companies have refused transactions, exclusive transactions, and whether they have discriminatory treatment and other illegal behaviors. For example, after financial reform liberalizes a small portion of interest rates, banks cannot collude to reach a fixed price agreement for the liberalized portion. For example, regarding oil prices, the Anti-Monopoly Law can play a role in sanctioning oil companies for price following, price squeezing and other behaviors within the price range guided by the government.
Caixin "China Reform": CountryNational Development and Reform Commission2011Start investigating China in 2017TelecomAnd ChinaChina UnicomSuspected in the field of broadband accessMonopoly, but there is still no follow-up. Does it mean that the "hard nut" of the monopoly industry cannot be overcome?
w88 online live casino: This case has not yet been concluded and a comprehensive assessment cannot be given, but it has clearly released a positive signal. First, it shows that the monopoly industry is not a place outside the law; second, it touches central enterprises; third, the case involves the interests of the majority of consumers; fourth, the rectification has produced positive effects, and the demonstration effect is obvious: Internet speeds have improved, the market has opened up, and companies have the awareness to abide by the law.
How to improve law enforcement effectiveness
Caixin's "China Reform": Currently, what are the key issues facing improving the effectiveness of antitrust administrative law enforcement? Can administrative monopoly law enforcement be implemented?
w88 online live casino: Regarding the issue of law enforcement effectiveness, I still adhere to my opinions at the legislative stage. At that time, the opinions of experts were unanimous, that is, they hoped that administrative law enforcement agencies should be relatively independent, unified, professional and authoritative law enforcement agencies. However, due to historical reasons, law enforcement functions were scattered among the three agencies, which did not realize the wishes of experts. Currently, the State Council is studying and carrying out a new round of administrative system reform. This round of reform highlights the characteristics of systematic design, orderly advancement, functional integration, and scientific allocation. To improve the effectiveness of law enforcement, it is necessary to take advantage of this administrative reform to establish a ministerial-level, relatively independent, unified, professional and authoritative law enforcement agency, enrich personnel, strengthen professionalism, improve law enforcement transparency, and vigorously promote the formulation and implementation of competition policies, making it an important basic economic policy of the country. This is a reference to the successful experience of international law enforcement agencies and the best way to meet the needs of domestic market-oriented reform.
The enforcement of my country's Anti-Monopoly Law, in addition to examining the three types of economic monopoly behaviors, including suspected monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance and concentration of operators, also needs to increase the investigation and punishment of administrative monopolies with Chinese characteristics. The abuse of administrative power to form monopolies is a major feature of China, which cannot be solved by the Anti-Monopoly Law alone. It is a good thing that the Anti-Monopoly Law includes regulations on administrative monopoly. It is a victory for the National People's Congress to retain this chapter in the end. When the legislation was first used to discuss legal responsibilities, some people suggested that there must be punitive provisions including fines and removal from office. In my opinion, as long as administrative monopoly is included in the scope of application of the Anti-Monopoly Law, it is a victory, because it is unrealistic to quickly transform a system, and it is unrealistic to directly submit the case to the National People's Congress. According to the Anti-Monopoly Law, law enforcement agencies have the power to investigate relevant cases, characterize suspected violations, and make recommendations to the administrative agencies involved. Although they do not have the power to fine or dismiss from their posts, they can still investigate, determine violations, publicly expose them, and recommend punishment to superiors. Officials are afraid of poor performance. Once the media announces it, the "lethality" and "deterrence" will be great.
Attachment: Original report link
http://magazine.caixin.com/2013-10-31/100597850.html
