Commemoration of the UN Set of Principles and Rules on Competition

The Competition Commission and the Competition Authority in Botswana joined the competition family to commemorate the UN Set of Principles and Rules on Competition. Under Resolution 35/63 on 5 December 1980, the UN General Assembly adopted The Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices, which were later renamed the “Set of Principles and Rules on Competition” (The ‘UN Set’). The UN Set resulted in the UN dedicating promotion and protection of competition policy one of the fundamental roles of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The UN Set are a recommendation to Member States of the UN to have transparent, accountable, fair and legally sound processes to deal with matters that affect competition in trade and commerce. These include monopolisation and abuse in markets, cartels at domestic or international level. The UN Set affirmed the need that measures adopted by States for the control of restrictive business practices should be applied fairly, equitably, on the same basis to all enterprises and in accordance with established procedures of law.

To domesticate the UN resolution, Botswana adopted a National Competition Policy in 2005 and enacted its first Competition Act in 2009. The subsequent establishment of the two mutually accountable investigating and adjudicating organs in the name of the Competition Authority and the Competition Commission completed the domestication of the recommendation. Competition principles and rules are also espoused under Article 25 of the SADC Trade Protocol and Articles 40 and 41 of the SACU Agreement.

In remembering the UN Set, Thula Kaira, CEO of the Competition Authority remarked that: “There is no doubt that the domestication of competition policy and law by Botswana was not far-fetched. Any law promoting and protecting transparency, non-discrimination and procedural fairness in economic activity is good law. The proliferation of sophisticated and exploitative cartels and other cross-border anti-competitive practices at regional and global levels require vigilant surveillance by all our trading partners.

The Competition Commission and the Competition Authority would like to join the family of competition advocates, practitioners, enforcers and adjudicators across the world to celebrate the thirty-second (32^nd) year of the adoption of the UN Set and further support the various initiatives undertaken by UNCTAD to develop capacity in the implementation of competition policy and law in Botswana and other developing countries”.