Canada and Japan Reach Agreement in Principle for Competition Law Co-operation
Canada and Japan recently announced that they have agreed on the major elements of a draft cooperation agreement. The draft agreement is modeled on those already in place between Canada and the U.S., the U.K., and the E.U. It is to include five elements: notification of enforcement activities that may affect important interests of the other party; co-operation in the form of assistance to one another's competition authorities; co-ordination of enforcement activities in mutually related matters; "positive comity" through requests for enforcement action to be taken by the other party in relation to conduct affecting important interests of the requesting party; and "negative comity" through the careful consideration of important interests of the other party in enforcement activities.
The draft agreement is the product of several rounds of negotiations that were first announced in November 2002. With the major elements settled, it still remains for these elements to be put into the form of a definitive agreement.
