Mexico - strengthening the competition and regulation framework

In June 2013, Mexico passed a constitutional reform modifying the institutional landscape in the areas of telecommunications, broadcasting and competition. The reform :

created two different competition authorities, the Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) or the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT),
established specialised courts in these areas and
enacted a new Federal Economic Competition Law endowing the Federal Executive Branch by itself or through the Ministry of Economy to request the competition authorities to start investigations and special procedures, perform studies and issue non-binding opinions.

In December 2014 Mexico's Ministry of Economy and the OECD signed an Agreement to help Mexico strengthen its competitiveness through economic competition.

The support provided by the OECD through this agreement aimed to help the Ministry to promote competition in Mexico, by the identification of restrictions or distortions that unduly limit competition in its markets.

The project was co-ordinated by the Vice-Ministry for Competitiveness and Standardisation of the Ministry of Economy of Mexico. The outputs of the agreement were developed by the Competition Division of the OECD.

A long-standing partnership

Prior competition and regulation work with Mexico includes the 2008 Mexico-OECD Co-operation to Strengthen Competitiveness in Mexico that was constructed around 2 pillars: competition and regulatory improvement. This multi-year project supported improving the competitiveness of the Mexican economy by reforming and modifying the regulatory and institutional framework to encourage higher levels of investment, employment and growth.

The competition pillar focused on increasing competition in product markets. This process identified regulations and policies that unnecessarily restricted competition, and developed alternatives to make regulation more pro-competitive, using the framework of the Competition Assessment Toolkit. This work was done in co-operation with the former Mexican Federal Competition Commission (CFC) and the Ministry of Economy of Mexico.

The project was co-ordinated by the Vice-Ministry for Competitiveness and Standardisation of the Ministry of Economy of Mexico. Toolkit project proposals were developed by a technical group overseen by CFC in co-operation with the Competition Division of the OECD.

See also:

Competition Assessment Toolkit

OECD Recommendation on Competition Assessment

Using the Competition Assessment Toolkit

The Toolkit contains a checklist that signals when there is a potential competition problem that should be investigated in more depth (along the lines of those regularly conducted by Competition Authorities). The checklist identifies potential problems if the policy, law or regulation will:

Limit the number or range of suppliers, e.g. establishes a license process as an operation requirement
Limit the ability of suppliers to compete, e.g. significantly raises production costs of new entrants relative to incumbents
Reduce the incentive of suppliers to compete vigorously; reduce mobility of consumers between suppliers

If a more in-depth investigation reveals that there is an undue restriction on competition, the Toolkit contains advice on alternatives that may offset or mitigate potential harm to competition while still achieving the policy objective of the original law/regulation.

Mexico has been using the toolkit to identify barriers to competition in the sectors of medicines and meat. Read more at Mexico: Competition Assessment Project.

Key publications

‌