Bu çalışmada, küreselleşmeyle birlikte ticaret ve rekabet politikaları arasındaki sınırın bulanıklaşması, ticaret ve rekabet politikalarının iç içe geçmesi üzerinde durulmaktadır. Bu çerçevede, rekabete ilişkin ticaretle bağlantılı uluslararası sorunların ağırlığı giderek artmaktadır. Uzun bir tartışma döneminden sonra, konunun Dünya Ticaret Örgütü(DTÖ) kapsamına alınmaması yönünde karar verilmiş olmakla birlikte, ortaya çıkan uluslararası meselelerin ışığında konu güncelliğini sürdürmektedir. Ticaretle ilişkili rekabete ilişkin uluslararası sorun alanlarının başında uluslararası karteller, üçüncü ülkeler üzerinde taşma etkileri olan birleşmeler ve uluslararası oligopoller gelmektedir. Her üç durum da, küreselleşmeyle birlikte ekonomik ağırlıkları ve hâkimiyetleri önemli ölçüde artan çokuluslu şirketlerle yakından ilgilidir. Serbest ticarete yönelerek iç piyasalarını dış rekabete açan gelişmekte olan ülkeler, gerek iç, gerek dış piyasalarda çokuluslu şirketlerle rekabet etmek durumunda kalmaktadırlar. Gelişmekte olan ülkelerin(GOÜ) gerek uluslararası karteller, gerek taşma etkileri olan birleşmeler konusunda haklarını arayabilmeleri olanakları son derece sınırlıdır. Uluslararası oligopoller ise, gelişmekte olan ülkelerin uluslararası piyasalarda rekabetçiliğini önemli ölçüde engellemektedir. O nedenle, bu çalışmada özellikle gelişmekte olan ülkelerin çokuluslu şirketler karşısındaki konumları üzerinde durulmaktadır.

In the era of globalization, the line between trade and competition policies is getting blurred. The developments like elimination of trade restrictions, liberalization of capital flows and rapid technological improvements have changed conditions of competition deeply. By definition, trade policy deals with competition issues behind the boundaries of the country, whereas competition policy within those boundaries. But in open economy conditions, many international anticompetitive practices like international cartels, and mergers and acquisitions with international spillovers occur. In this context, there has been a long discussion on whether trade related international issues about competition should be included in the WTO agenda or not. The proposal in this direction was announced at Singapore Ministerial Conference in 1996 for the first time. At Cancun Ministerial Conference in 2003 this issue was decided to be removed from the WTO agenda. But on the ground that trade related international competition issues are getting important, the discussion about these subjects didn’t cease in the international arena. In this study, the increasing power of transnational corporations is particularly emphasized. Of course, the presence of transnational corporations is not new. But with the process of globalization their weight and global domination in global markets have increased apparently. Transnational firms have a leading role in international cartel formations. International cartels can create serious barriers of entry for other producers and have negative effects on consumers. Now that transnational corporations are backed by their country of origin, even developed countries find themselves in severe difficulties in getting information and legal help from other countries about cartel firms and their activities. In this context, developing countries have much bigger problems. Certainly, a developing country would have more difficulties in pushing a developed country to cooperate in a cartel investigation against a cartelist transnational firm its own country of origin. Moreover, in case of a cartelist transnational firm has important weight and dominance in a sector of a developing country, that country may refrain from cooperation in a cartel investigation against the cartelist firm. Developing countries may endure negative effects of cartels for not to loose production and employment created in their countries by cartelist firms. On the other hand, mergers and acquisitions between big transnational corporations can form a new firm with stronger market power and affect some third country markets and even industries tremendously. In order to protect their firms’ benefits, developed countries monitor mergers and acquisitions of foreign transnational firms and bargain with each other effectively. However, even if developing countries monitor transnational firms’ mergers and acquisitions and doubt to face a potential harm, they wouldn’t have the necessary power to oppose it. Furthermore, in many industries, industrial concentration has deepened. In this context, global oligopolies constitute another international problem area that blurs the line between trade and competition policies. By cooperating in developing the highest technology, global oligopolist firms can create serious entry barriers for developing country firms. In the light of the issues discussed in this study, it is understood that trade liberalization doesn’t always end up in perfect competition conditions. Now that there are asymmetrical power relations between transnational corporations of developed countries and small and medium sized firms of developing countries, enhancing of market access opportunities may not serve automatically to enhance competition in domestic markets. It is obvious that, in order to be able to compete in domestic and global markets, developing country firms have to be and stay competitive. Reminding that nearly half of the WTO members don’t have domestic competition laws, this study recommends that developing countries should be more aware of the international aspects of the competition issues and build their own appropriate national competition laws designed for their own needs.