The United States Antitrust Laws: A Canadian Viewpoint

Abstract

In recent years there has been increasing discussion in both academic and official circles of the problems of non-tariff barriers to trade, particularly restrictive business practices, the conduct of the multinational firm, and the implications of foreign ownership of enterprises. These matters are of concern not only for world markets but for individual nations. In Canada, the reports of several important public inquiries (the Report of the Task Force on the Structure of Canadian Industry, the Interim Report of the Economic Council of Canada on Competition Policy, and the Report of the Royal Commission on Farm Machinery), have been published already. And the Canadian government is now engaged in a major study of foreign ownership of Canadian business; the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on External Affairs has just completed its report on this issue, which includes reference to the extraterritorial application of anti-trust laws. The International Conference on Monopolies, Mergers and Restrictive Practices held at Cambridge in September 1969, in which Canadians participated, discussed important aspects of the multinational firm and the extraterritorial application of anti-trust laws, a subject that has engaged the urgent attention of the International Law Association since 1962. Moreover, the O.E.C.D. has latterly become concerned with the importance of these matters, particularly with their impact on international trade.