The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department (DOJ) today launched a two-day joint workshop as part of this year’s first Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s (APEC) Senior Officials Meeting, which the United States is hosting in Palm Springs, California. This year marks the first time the United States has hosted APEC since 2011.
The FTC and the Justice Department organized and hosted the workshop on competition advocacy for APEC’s Competition Policy and Law Group to build on the APEC 2023 priorities, including promoting competitive markets throughout the Asia-Pacific region and fostering cooperation across APEC’s 21 economies in service of this goal.
The workshop began with opening remarks from FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and DOJ Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter.
“The participants in this conference represent a broad and diverse spectrum of perspectives on our common goal— to cooperatively build the capacity of our economies to foster a free, open and fair trade and investment environment,” Commissioner Slaughter said. She added that the way to do it is through an interconnected, innovative, and inclusive economy and elaborated on how these goals are “woven into the fabric of the FTC’s competition and consumer protection missions and recent enforcement, advocacy, and policy efforts.”
The workshop is featuring presentations and roundtable discussions on litigating competition matters, regulatory advocacy and effective legislative advocacy in a changing world. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Hetal Doshi, who leads the Antitrust Division’s Litigation Unit, kicked off the workshop with a presentation sharing best practices for courtroom advocacy. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maggie Goodlander, who oversees the Antitrust Division’s International, Appellate, and Policy Sections, led a panel with Commissioner Slaughter, judges and competition agency leadership from Chile and Peru. Tomorrow, Thomas Dahdouh, Attorney Advisor in the Office of the FTC Chair, will present on litigation before administrative agencies like the FTC and will lead a panel discussing how to balance limited agency resources against an unlimited workload.
APEC is the premier platform for advancing economic policies in the Asia-Pacific region that promote inclusive and sustainable growth, as well as free, fair, and open trade and investment. In addition to this week’s meeting in Palm Springs, the United States will host APEC Senior Officials Meetings in Detroit (May 2023) and Seattle (August 2023), as well as APEC’s Economic Leaders’ Week in San Francisco (November 2023).
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