Wto، توسعه اقتصادی و سیاست رقابتی در ایران[WTO, Economic Development and Competition Policy in Iran]

Competition policy, understood as the policy and law governing firms’ anti-competitive behavior, was incorporated into the WTO’s work program following the decisions of the WTO Ministerial Conference in Singapore (1996). Its dimensions continued to be examined in the Doha Round with the prospect of becoming one of the WTO’s multilateral agreements. Horizontal and vertical market restraints, abuse of dominant position, and mergers are the main forms of anti-competitive practices. Competition laws in more than 80 WTO member states seek to preserve and promote competition as an instrument for achieving the efficient allocation of resources in the economy. As a component of the economic reform package, competition law and policy function as a tool for economic development under the conditions of globalization, a driver of economic competitiveness, a factor enhancing the economy’s attractiveness to foreign investors, and a mechanism for realizing the benefits of privatization. In this sense, competition law opens up significant opportunities for economic development in Iran. Competition law is essentially a set of principles and rules governing agreements among enterprises that restrict competition. In designing the economic–commercial aspects of competition law, both the level of a country’s economic development and the principles of competition should be taken into account, while minimizing the challenges of implementation. Accordingly, this article first reviews the literature on competition law and policy within the UN, WTO, and UNCTAD frameworks, and then analyzes the structure and elements of a national competition law, drawing on the experience of other countries and existing studies on Iran.