Chinese Competition Policy: The Antimonopoly Law & China's Financial Sector

The Asia Society presents a talk with Nate Bush, O'Melveny & Myers LLP on China's antimonopoly Law & China's financial sector.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

On August 1, 2008, China's first comprehensive competition statute, the Antimonopoly Law, took effect. Although many provisions of the AML are modeled on foreign antitrust laws and enforcement practices, the extent to which "antitrust with Chinese characteristics" will actually converge with prevailing international practices remains to be seen. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce's landmark ruling imposing conditions on InBev's acquisition of Anheuser Busch and the circulation of draft implementing measures have raised new questions about the political economy of competition policy in China. The Antimonopoly Law's impact on state-owned enterprises and highly regulated sectors remains to be seen. Chinese regulators now face a string of novel cases that will test their antitrust acumen and political clout--and provide a glimpse of the future course of Chinese antitrust enforcement. The implications for China's financial sector--dominated by state-owned banks and battered by the global economic downturn--may have wide-ranging effects for foreign financial institutions and companies doing business in China.
 
Speaker: Nate Bush is a partner in the Beijing office of O'Melveny & Myers LLP. 

To register, please call 415.421.8707 
 
Seating is limited; please register by Thursday, January 15