Competition Laws in MENA: An Assessment of the Status Quo and the Relevance of a WTO Agreement

Competition policy plays an increasing role worldwide, both at the national and international level. The number of countries with competition laws has increased to about seventy as of 1999, against less than thirty only three decades earlier. One of the many reasons that lie behind this renewed interest in competition policy is the deregulation and privatization that has become increasingly important throughout the world, particularly in developing countries and countries in transition This in turn has drawn attention to the need for strengthening competition at the national level. MENA countries have not been out of this liberalization trend, although, to date only three countries have enacted competition legislation. The objective of the paper is to assess the state of competition legislation and enforcement in some of the MENA countries and the relevance of some ideas being discussed concerning eventual international negotiations on competition within the WTO.