THE Competition and Tariff Commission (CTC) is in the process of drafting a new competition policy which provides broad guidance on treatment of social, economic and legal issues facing the Zimbabwean competition legal framework.
BY TARISAI MANDIZHA
The new policy will align the commission with international best practices and replace the current one which has been in place since 1998, according to CTC chairperson Dumisani Sibanda.
The draft Competition Policy is ready for presentation to the Economic and Legal parliamentary portfolio committees and Cabinet, he said.
“It is imperative to note that the world is dynamic and not static. Due to the changes in the global competition environment, the Competition and Tariff Commission realised the over-arching need to modernise its laws to keep abreast with the changes. Resultantly, the commission resolved to modernise the Competition Policy adopted in 1998 and align it with the international best practices,” Sibanda said in emailed responses.
He said in its quest to fulfill its mandate, the CTC drafted a new competition policy in 2014 and the formulation of the draft Competition Policy was done by employing various techniques, which included review of existing documents related to the Report of the Peer Review of Competition Law and Policy of Zimbabwe (2012), the report on legal inventory of the competition-related legislation in Zimbabwe (2013) and related literature from variant sources.
Sibanda said the exercise also benefited from key informant interviews with stakeholders from government and private sector in Zimbabwe during the fact-finding mission held from September 22 to 26, 2014.
“The Commission has undertaken the review of the Competition Act [Chapter 14:28] using internal resources, drawing lessons from selected countries which include South Africa, Zambia, United States of America, Comesa and European Union regulations.
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“As part of the process of drafting the law, the Commission undertook the Legal Inventory of the competition-related legislation in the country. The Legal Inventory and the Draft Competition Law will be submitted to the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development expert after the commission board meeting scheduled for mid-May 2016 as an input into the review of the Act,” he said.
He said the whole review process of policy and law was being funded by the European Union.
Sibanda said the completion of the drafting of the Act was dependent on the UNCTAD consultant and the CTC expects the consultant to start working on the new law and complete the draft within the next two months.
Sibanda said the development to draft a new competition policy was necessitated when the commission volunteered to have its Competition Policy and law peer-reviewed by the UNCTAD.
He said the peer review exercise was undertaken for Zimbabwe together with Zambia and Tanzania in 2012 and the purpose of the Tripartite Peer Review was to assess the legal framework and enforcement experiences, drawing lessons and best practices from each jurisdiction and examining the value added on the harmonisation of competition law and policy and its enforcement in the sub-region.
Sibanda said worldwide, there was a growing realisation that competition policy and law is one of the core-pillars of economic growth and development.
Government introduced Competition law in 1996 and CTC was put in place in 2001 as the implementing agency of the law.
