Brazil becomes a member of COMPAL program

On 18 January, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense – CADE was confirmed as a member of the program Competencia y Proteccion al Consumidor en America Latina – COMPAL, linked to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - UNCTAD.

On 16 January, the Mission of Brazil to the United Nation in Geneva delivered the letter from CADE’s President, Alexandre Barreto, to the UNCTAD’s Secretariat, requesting the accession to the program.

The membership follows a meeting between CADE and UNCTAD held in Brazil in 2017 to discuss the matter. In this occasion, the Brazilian competition authority manifested its interest in becoming a partner of the program and received a positive feedback from UNCTAD’s representatives.

CADE believes that the adhesion to COMPAL will result in the strengthening of cooperation ties with other competition authorities in Latin America, since the program will provide an important platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences between Brazil and others Latin America’s countries in competition matter, through training and institutional strengthening.

The news was received with enthusiasm by the Head of UNCTAD’s Competition Policy and Consumer Protection Branch, Teresa Moreira.

“CADE will contribute to the program sharing experiences on competition law and policy with other countries. This will help to the achievement of the sustainable developments goals in Latin America and the Brazilian experience on competition will serve as a guide to the developing countries that are aiming to consolidate the competition defense system in their jurisdictions”, said Ms. Moreira.

CADE and UNCTAD have been working together already. In 2017, the authority participated as an instructor at Escuela Indecopi-Compal, in Peru, about the investigation and analysis of competition cases. In addition, in 2018, CADE will host the 8th Annual Meeting of the Working Group on Trade and Competition in the Latin America and the Caribbean, an initiative of UNCTAD in partnership with the Secretariat of the Latin American Economic System (SELA).