The permanent mission of Brazil presented the letter of Mr. Alexandre Barreto de Souza, President of CADE, Brazil's Competition Authority on 16 January, requesting his accession to UNCTAD's COMPAL Program.
The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE), the body responsible for investigating and enforcing competition law, as well as promoting the culture of competition in Brazil, sees benefits in joining COMPAL as it will strengthen the cooperation ties with other Competition Authorities in the region.
The program will provide an important platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences between Brazil and other Latin American countries on competition matters, following its successful performance.
"CADE will provide an extremely important contribution to the COMPAL program due to its vast experience in competition law enforcement and advocacy.
This will facilitate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Latin America and CADE's expertise will be a reference for other countries that are seeking to improve and consolidate their system of defense of competition," said Teresa Moreira, Head of Competition and Consumer Protection Policies Branch of UNCTAD.
The accession of CADE strengthens COMPAL as the main platform for regional cooperation in the field of competition and consumer protection in Latin America.
The participation of CADE in COMPAL activities reinforces the ability to exchange knowledge and experiences among members and improves the training of officials.
CADE and COMPAL were already working together: last November, Ms. Livia de Melo, Coordinator of the cabinet of the general superintendence of CADE, participated as trainer in the INDECOPI-COMPAL School training program on forensic practice on competition in Lima, Peru.
In 2018, CADE will host the Eighth Annual Meeting of the UNCTAD - SELA (Latin American and Caribbean Economic System) Working Group on Trade and Competition in Latin America and the Caribbean, where topics of regional interest related to trade and competition are analyzed.
COMPAL is a regional technical cooperation program that provides technical assistance in the areas of competition and consumer protection policies in Latin America, with the support of the Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO - Switzerland).
With Brazil, COMPAL now has 17 beneficiary countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
