It took more time than the Long March and the Great Leap Forward combined, but after 14 years of wrangling China will introduce a comprehensive antitrust law on August 1st. It could prove to be hugely important: it has been called China's "economic constitution". The law would give China's economy a further big push from central planning and state ownership towards markets, says Lester Ross of the Beijing office of WilmerHale, a law firm.rnOn the face of it, the law is desperately needed: energy, telecoms, transport, steel and many other industries lack competition, with a handful of dominant firms controlling prices not only for consumers, but for other companies too. Even fragmented industries, such as rice flour and instant noodles, where competition ought to abound, were recently reported to have seen price-fixing and collusion organised through the trade groups that are a legacy of the state-controlled economy.
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