OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2011. In course of a delegation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) visiting Beijing (the People’s Republic of China) to participate in the 2nd BRICS International Competition Conference, Stats-Secretary Deputy Head of the FAS Russia Andrey Tsarikovskiy, had a meeting with the Head of the Department of Price Supervision, of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Mr. Xu Kunlin, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The parties informed each other about the main directions of activities, scope of reference and structures of their bodies, and discussed the issues of antimonopoly enforcement with regard to monopolistic prices. Andrey Tsarikovskiy told his China’s colleague about changes in Russian antimonopoly law.

As one of the main objectives of the Department of Price Supervision, of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, is to combat cartels, the parties agreed to develop cooperation with regard to anti-cartel efforts. Mr. Mr. Xu Kunlin emphasized that Russian experience of combating cartels is of significant interest to his agency.

The parties also discussed the prospects of developing bilateral cooperation, in particular, exchanging information in course of joint investigations of antimonopoly violations.

The parties expressed their hopes that this first and constructive bilateral meeting would lay foundation for developing productive cooperation between FAS Russia and China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

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In the People’s Republic of China three government authorities are responsible for antimonopoly policy and enforcement: the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). The Ministry of Commerce is in charge of antimonopoly control over concentration of economic entities; State Administrative Departments of Industry and Commerce – for enforcement of the law against suspicious monopolistic agreements, abuses of market dominance and administrative monopolies, while the role of NDRC is to apply the antimonopoly law to monopolistic prices. To perform new functions, MOFCOM created General Antimonopoly Bureau; State Administrative Departments of Industry and Commerce – Antitrust and Anti-unfair Competition Bureau; and NDRC – the Department for Price Supervision.