Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Meet With Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Merger Enforcement Matters

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis Pozen of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division today met with a delegation from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) to discuss antitrust merger enforcement. The delegation was led by China International Trade Representative and MOFCOM Vice Minister Gao Hucheng. MOFCOM is responsible for handling reviews of mergers and acquisitions under China's Antimonopoly Law.

This is the first high-level MOFCOM visit to the U.S. antitrust agencies since the FTC and DOJ signed an antitrust Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China's three antimonopoly agencies in July 2011 to promote communication and cooperation among the antitrust enforcement agencies in both countries.

The discussion topics in today's meeting included recent antitrust enforcement and policy developments, the role of antitrust enforcement in times of economic downturn and cooperation among the three agencies on merger enforcement issues. The three agencies developed further guidance for cooperation on investigations when one of the U.S. antitrust agencies and MOFCOM are reviewing the same merger.

FTC and DOJ officials said that the discussions with the delegation from MOFCOM were productive and that they look forward to continuing their cooperative relationship.

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