The head of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a representative from the Justice Department met with Chinese officials in Beijing this week to discuss efforts to ensure effective antitrust enforcement and increased interagency cooperation.
The meetings covered a wide range of topics including enforcement and policy developments and priorities, the antitrust treatment of conduct involving intellectual property and its role in promoting innovation, and future opportunities for cooperation. The agencies also exchanged views on the role of sound and effective procedures in competition enforcement and the importance of competition advocacy. Meetings will continue through Friday with separate meetings between U.S. antitrust enforcers and each of the three Chinese agencies.
In attendance at the meeting from the U.S. government were Maureen Ohlhausen, acting chair of the FTC, and Makan Delrahim, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. They met with Hu Zucai, vice chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC); Zhang Handong, director general from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM); and NDRC Chairman He Lifeng, along with several others.
“Having closely followed the implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law over the past decade, I was pleased to engage with our Chinese colleagues to discuss recent developments and issues of concern to our agencies,” Ohlhausen said.
This is the U.S. delegation’s fourth meeting in China since the between the countries signed an antitrust memorandum of understanding on July 27, 2011.