Realizing that substantial trade and investment liberalization, deregulation and privatization are good for Filipinos due to the obvious efficiency and welfare gains brought about by increased competition from new products and services, the Philippine government has adopted a policy of introducing more competition-enhancing measures, such as the further lowering of trade and investment barriers and the reform of certain economic regulations. Unfortunately, government officials have not attended the need for a new and comprehensive framework for anti-trust policy and regulation, despite the central role played by anti-trust policy in economic reform measures for enhancing competition.
This short study has therefore been commissioned as a means of developing specific recommendations for new anti-trust policies and regulations. This study focuses also on anti-trust issues from a legal and regulatory structure point of view and in a comprehensive manner rather than a sector-specific approach. It also analyzes the proper administrative structures for effective enforcement of policy, and necessarily including some insights on existing political economy conditions.
