China-U.S. High-level Dialogue on Anti-monopoly (hereinafter referred to as the "Dialogue") was held in Beijing on January 9. Mr. Jiang Zengwei, Vice Minister of Commerce of PRC, chaired the Dialogue and Hu Zucai, Vice Chairmen of the National Development and Reform Commission, Mr. Sun Hongzhi, Vice Minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Mr. Bayer, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice, and Ms. Ramirez, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, were present at the Dialogue.

Mr. Jiang delivered an opening speech on behalf of the Chinese side, and representatives from China’s three antimonopoly enforcement authorities briefed on the progress made over the past year in supporting legislation for anti-monopoly, law enforcement of major cases, publicity and training and international cooperation as well as priorities of law enforcement and work plans in 2014. The U.S. side briefed on the development in its enforcement of anti-monopoly. Two parties also made discussions on the relationship between anti-monopoly and intellectual property rights as well as the status of competition policy.

According to Chinese side, as the largest developing country and the largest developed country in the world, both China and the U.S. had considerable influence in anti-monopoly, and it was necessary for the two parties to strengthen cooperation in fighting against international monopoly agreements and preventing monopoly in transnational mergers and acquisitions. China issued the Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms recently, putting forward to make the market play the decisive role in resource allocations, and establish a fair, open and transparent market so as to fight against monopoly and unfair competitions. The Chinese government would continue to make efforts on anti-monopoly so as to safeguard fair competition order in the market.

The U.S. side said that although enforcement of Anti-monopoly law in China had only been implemented for a short time, China had made impressive achievements on it, and had won the respect in the globe. Despite the differences between China and the U.S. in economic and political systems, the U.S. had attached great importance to the cooperation with China in anti-monopoly, and would like to join efforts with China to give full play to the role of China-U.S. high-level dialogue on anti-monopoly and enhance mutual understanding and trust so as to reach consensus and jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

The two parties agreed that the Dialogue achieved great success. Strengthening exchanges and cooperation between the anti-monopoly enforcement agencies of China and the U.S. was of great importance in safeguarding a fair competition order in the market and promoting bilateral economic and trade relations. Both parties wished for, by making full use of the high-level dialogue platform, frank communication and close cooperation on the common concerns of the anti-monopoly enforcement authorities of the two countries and learning from each other, so as to jointly fight against anti-monopoly that may hurt the competition order in international market.

In order to strengthen China-U.S. cooperation in anti-monopoly, the anti-monopoly enforcement authorities of China and the U.S. signed the MOU on cooperation in July 2011. Pursuant to the MOU, the anti-monopoly enforcement authorities of China and the U.S. will hold annual high-level dialogue on anti-monopoly alternately to exchange information on competition legislation and law enforcement in their own country and to exchange views on issues of common concern. It is the second round of high-level dialogue since the MOU was signed.