Revisiting Antitrust in the Age of Great-Powers Competition
Abstract
U.S. antitrust law has traditionally paid little attention to global competitiveness, industrial policy, and geopolitical policy considerations. This reflects a commitment to enabling the free play of competitive forces to determine market outcomes and an aversion to enabling protectionist policies that can protect inefficient “national champions.” These assumptions are challenged in a global marketplace where large geopolitical powers pursue mercantilist strategies that intervene in market processes to secure competitive advantages in strategically critical industries. This essay proposes a two-prong framework that integrates global competitiveness concerns within U.S. antitrust’s commitment to the market process, as implemented through adjusted treatment of market definition, scale economies, and state-backed predatory pricing practices. The essay also identifies “escape hatches” through which U.S. policymakers can address geopolitical and national-security concerns that fall outside the scope of antitrust law.
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