X Latin America and the Caribbean Working Group on Trade and Competition: E-commerce a path to regional economic recovery

Rapporturs Report

Background

The Latin American and Caribbean Working Group on Trade and Competition is a regional forum of trade and competition authorities. It was created in 2010 for regional cooperation, consultation and coordination in areas of converging interest in both areas.

Its organization and operations are mainly the responsibility of the Permanent Secretariat of SELA and the General Secretariat of UNCTAD, as Executive Secretariat and Technical Secretariat, respectively.

Its origin dates back to two regional seminars on trade and competition for the region held in April 2009 and May 2010, in Caracas and Brasilia, respectively, which resulted in the recommendation, to the Latin American Council of SELA, to form a Working Group on Trade and Competition for the region.

Thus, meetings have been held in Colombia (2011), Peru (2012), Argentina (2013), Dominican Republic (2014), Ecuador (2015), Honduras (2016), El Salvador (2017), Brazil (2018), Paraguay (2019).

Several topics have been addressed in order to consider opinions and experiences regarding: trade integration, public procurement, energy and hydrocarbon markets, institutional capacity building, competition policy in the telecommunications sector, benefits of competition policy in providing goods and services, promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), trade facilitation, intellectual property, harmonization and convergence in regulatory frameworks, port infrastructure and services, etc.

During the ninth meeting of the CWGTC, the authorities requested that substantial issues related to e-commerce and the digital economy be addressed in greater depth.

Justification

The digital economy, and more specifically e-commerce, have accelerated with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic in the world. Latin America and the Caribbean, regions greatly affected by this health emergency, have shown progress in its race to insert and benefit from e-commerce. According to the IDB, the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world is that of the region (+37% by 2020).

Although the region has worked on building standards and materializing agreements within the framework of integration mechanisms in recent years, it is necessary to insist on strengthening the regional digital ecosystem to reduce the persistent gaps in digital commerce.

Objectives

To present an overview of e-commerce and digital economy in the region, in the aftermath of the pandemic and its impact on the economic recovery process.
To identify the strengths and weaknesses faced by the region with the purpose of boosting dynamism.
To provide a space for discussion and learning of best practices in the regulation and promotion of e-commerce and the digital economy in the region.

Agenda

Venue: Facilities of the Central Bank of Paraguay

October 20, 2022

Morning
9:00 – 9:40	OPENING SESSION
9:00 – 9:10	Rolando Díaz, President, National Competition Commission of Paraguay (CONACOM)
9:10 – 9:20	Representative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
9:20 – 9:30	Clarems Endara, Permanent Secretary, Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA)
9:30 – 9:40	Representative of the Government of Paraguay
9:40 – 10:25	SESSION I DIAGNOSIS OF THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF E-COMMERCE IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN AFTER THE PANDEMIC Moderator: Pedro Mancuello, Vice-Minister of Trade, Ministry of Trade, Paraguay
9:40 – 10:00	Ricardo Rozemberg, Lead Specialist in Integration and Trade, Institute for the Integration of Latin America (INTAL). Impact and evolution of e-commerce in Latin America and the Caribbean (Spanish).
10:00 – 10:20	Nanno Mulder, Chief of the Sustainable Trade Unit of the International Trade and Integration Division, Economic Commission for Latin America and Caribbean (ECLAC). Regulation of e-commerce: implications and considerations for Latin America and the Caribbean (Spanish).
10:20 – 10:30	COMMENTS & QUESTIONS
10:30 – 10:45	BREAK
10:45 – 12:30	SESSION I. CONTINUED NATIONAL AND REGIONAL EXPERIENCES ON E-COMMERCE PROMOTION Moderator: Pedro Mancuello, Vice-Minister of Trade, Ministry of Trade, Paraguay
10:45 – 11:05	Ramón Pérez Fermín, Vice-Minister of Trade, Dominican Republic. E-commerce and its impact on domestic trade (Spanish)
11:05 – 11:35	Alfredo Worner, Advisor, e-commerce Department, Directorate General for Export Promotion – ProChile.
11:35 – 11:55	Jorge Arreola, Director-General for Competitiveness and Competition, Secretariat of Economy of Mexico. The promotion of e-commerce in Mexico (Spanish).
11:55 – 12:15	Norman Harris, Advisor, Representative in Panama, Secretariat of Central American Economic Integration (SIECA). IT platforms to support e-commerce (Spanish).
12:15 – 12:30	COMMENTS & QUESTIONS
12:30 – 2:00	BREAK – LUNCH
Afternoon
2:00 – 3:40	SESSION II DIGITAL PLATFORMS, E-COMMERCE AND MSMEs. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BEST PRACTICES Moderator: Federico Martínez, lawyer, member of the law firm Mersan Abogados, member of the Paraguayan Association of Competition Studies (APEDEC)
2:00 – 2:20	Juan Luis Crucelegui. Head of Capacity Building and Advisory Services, Competition and Consumer Policy Department, UNCTAD. The interaction between Digital Platforms and MSMEs. Recommendations for best practices (Spanish).
2:20 – 2:40	Trends and benefits of electronic commerce for MSMEs in LAC: Edgar Felipe Arcila, Chief Executive Officer, Association of SMEs, micro-enterprises and e-business ventures - APPCE. Role of e-commerce in the country's economic recovery (Spanish)
2:40 – 3:00	Gustavo Giménez, President and Executive Director, Paraguayan Chamber of Electronic Commerce. E-commerce in Paraguay (Spanish).
3:00 – 3:20	María Elena Vásquez, President of the Board of Directors, PROCOMPETENCIA, Dominican Republic. The interaction between digital platforms and SMEs: best practices for digital platforms (RDP) (Spanish).
3:20 - 3:40	Federico Peña, Technical Director, National Competition Commission of Paraguay (CONACOM). Challenges for free competition in digital platforms (Spanish).
3:40 – 4:00	Ronda abierta de intervenciones para las agencias de comercio y competencia y sector MIPYMES de ALC.
Friday, 21 October 2022
Morning
9:30 – 10:50	THE DIGITALIZATION OF THE ECONOMY IN LATIN AMERICA: BENEFITS AND RISKS FOR COMPETITION Moderator: Juan Luis Crucelegui. Head of Capacity Building and Advisory Services, Competition and Consumer Policy Department, UNCTAD.
9:30 – 9:50	Guillermo Cabral, Directorate for Macroeconomic Studies, CAF–development bank of Latin America. The digitalisation of the economy in Latin America (Spanish)
9:50 – 10:10	Krisztián Katona, Vice President of Global Competition and Regulatory Policy, Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA). E-commerce: a path to regional economic recovery (Spanish).
10:10 – 10:30	Enrique Vergara, lawyer, academic, former head of the National Economic Prosecutor's Office and of the Chilean Court for the Defence of Free Competition. Mercados digitales: el caso UBER Cornership (Spanish)
10:30 – 10:50	Esteban Greco, Director of GAMES Economics, international consultant in regulatory and competition economics. Analysis of mergers in Latin American digital markets (Spanish).
10:50 – 11:00	BREAK
11:00 – 12:20	FORUM I Round table moderated by a representative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) with four representatives of competition authorities from the region, who will address different aspects of this topic. In particular:
11:00 – 11:20	Vicente Lagos, Chief Economist, Mergers Division, National Economic Prosecutor's Office (FNE) - Chile. The definition of the relevant market in the digital economy: aspects to take into consideration (Spanish).
11:20 – 11:40	Diogo Thomson, Deputy Superintendent, CADE-Brazil. The exercise of market power by digital platforms.
11:40 – 12:00	Daniel Escalona, Executive Director of Mergers, COFECE-Mexico. Control of mergers in digital markets (Spanish).
12:00 – 12:20	Marianela López Galdós, Director of Public Policy in the area of Competition, META. The need to establish a specific regulation to complement competition rules.
12:20 – 12:30	QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION
12:30 – 2:00	BREAK - LUNCH
Afternoon
2:00 – 3:20	Presentation of practical cases handled by competition authorities in the field of digital economy and e-commerce. Moderator: Rolando Diaz, President of the National Competition Commission (CONACOM)
2:00 – 2:20	Humberto Ortiz, Advisor, National Directorate for Research and Promotion of Free Competition, INDECOPI-Peru. Card payment services (Spanish).
2:20 – 2:40	Gerardo Henríquez, Competition Superintendent, SC-El Salvador. Competition policy and digital platforms (Spanish).
3:00 – 3:20	Guido Farbiarz, Economic Analyst and Instructor, CNDC-Argentina. The case of Whatsapp - Facebook (Spanish).
3:20 – 3:40	Proposed theme and venue for the XI Meeting of the WGCC in 2023
3:40 – 4:00	CLOSING SESSION
3:40 – 3:45	Representative of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
3:45 – 3:50	Representative of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic System (SELA)
3:50 – 3:55	Representative of the National Competition Commission (CONACOM)
3:55 – 4:00	Representative of the Government of Paraguay