Competitive Policies and Practices

Competitive Policies and Practices and International Trade Economy

In relation to international trade economy, Christopher Mark (1993) provided the following definition of Competitive Policies and Practices: Actions by governments or firms to affect their competitive performance in international markets. Such actions can be legal (e.g., government-to-government lobbying or export promotion) or illicit (e.g., bribery or deceptive trade practices), and some are subject to multilateral agreements (e.g., tied aid or concessional trade finance). Such practices may be undertaken by nations or firms to compensate for or bolster their underlying competitiveness. Illicit practices on the part of individual firms are usually termed “unfair business practices,” as distinguished from unfair trade practices (Sec.l) which are actionable under multilateral trade rules.