Anti-Competitive Behaviour In Jamaica Essay

INTRODUCTION

For the last 30 years, Jamaica has experienced low economic growth and a fiscal deficit which has stymied its development. Jamaica has made many attempts to improve its economy and has adopted structural adjustments measures and market oriented policy reforms that have led to a decline in the role of the state in economic activity. In this liberalized market economy, micro, small and medium-size enterprises (MSMEs) are exposed to fierce competition from large firms. Due to their size they are faced with many constraints that inhibit their ability to compete effectively in the market. It is therefore very important that the Government provides an enabling environment that protects MSMEs from anti-competitive behaviour that might

Should the Fair Trade Act protect MSMEs as a specific class of competitor since they lack the resources to compete with larger firms thereby benefiting from the competition policy?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study adopted an inductive approach, and it sought to analyze the impact of anti-competitive behaviour on Jamaican MSMEs from the reported instances of anti-competitive behaviour. Data was collected from newspaper articles, journals and Fair Trade Commission press release and research documents. As the data was narrative in nature, it was analyzed using qualitative methodology, namely content analysis.

The content analysis started with the reading and screening of newspaper articles, journals on the competition policy of South Africa and Singapore, and how they address issues specific to their MSMEs. In addition a review of news paper articles and press releases from the Fair Trade Commission looking at the central theme of competition and anti-competitive behaviours particularly with respect to encouraging the equitable participation of MSMEs in the economy. Codes were developed in order to determine the number of allegations of anti-competitive acts, and whether or not the firms were MSMEs.

LITERATURE

This argument is also supported by the United States and is evidence in its competition policies. The 1992 United States Department of Justice Horizontal Merger guidelines states that the aim of competition policy is economic efficiency and consumer welfare (Chabane et al., 2003; Theron, 2001). This narrow view known as the Chicago school approach (Cook, 2002; Fox, 2003; Jones &Suffrin,2011), supports monopolies if they are justified by economies of scale ( Cook, 2002) or if they promote superior performance (Griffith,2000). This argument sees monopolies as being efficient and therefore discourages government intervention unless consumer welfare suffers, even if this is at the expense of smaller competitors especially MSMEs (Fox, 2007; Jones