Competition - Andean Community -CAN-

The rules of free competition guarantee that enterprises will have free access under competitive conditions to the goods and services they require for production purposes, thereby promoting economic efficiency and seeking the consumers' wellbeing.

Andean Community Commission Decision 608 regulates free competition in the Andean subregion. It prohibits and sanctions behaviors in restraint of free competition that affect the subregion, whether exercised within the territory of one or more Member Countries, or of a country outside the Andean Community, and whose real effects are felt in one or more Member Countries. Practices originating in or affecting a single Member Country or other unforeseen situations are excluded from the effects of this Decision and will be governed by the respective Member Countries' national legislation.

Abuse of a position of dominance by an economic agent or agreements between such agents that have the intent or effect of substantially restricting, affecting or distorting market supply and demand conditions constitute behaviors in restraint of free competition.

The Community provisions that are applicable to imports affected by dumping are Decisions 456, when the imports affected by dumping are native to an Andean Community Member Country and 283, when those products originated in a third country and affect the products exported from one Member Country to another, or when two or more Member Countries are affected by dumping practices and the product is subject to the Common External Tariff (CET).

Community provisions that are applicable to imports affected by subsidies are Decisions 457, when the imports affected by dumping are native to an Andean Community Member Country and 283, when those products originated in a third country and affect the products exported from one Member Country to another, or when two or more Member Countries are affected by subsidies and the product is subject to the Common External Tariff.