WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorney General Janet Reno and Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Joel I. Klein announced today the formation of a new committee to help tackle the international antitrust problems of the 21st Century.

The International Competition Policy Advisory Committee is the first-ever on competition-related matters. It will advise Reno and Klein on international antitrust issues, including attacking transnational cartels, managing merger reviews that cover many jurisdictions, and dealing with anticompetitive practices that restrict international trade.

"International cartel restraints cost consumers hundreds of millions of dollars each year," said Reno. "We need this committee to help us continue to prepare for the global economy." One quarter of the American gross domestic product now involves international trade. In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in international commerce and substantial growth in the impact of private agreements in restraint of international trade.

The Department of Justice currently has some two dozen grand jury investigations involving cartels that cross national boundaries. Forging an international consensus to stamp out these private cartels is an Administration priority and a prime area for consideration by the Committee. Additionally, the number of mergers that involves companies of more than one nation, or that affect significant economic interests in more than one nation, is also on the rise.

Added Klein, "the changing competitive realities have resulted in new challenges for enforcement of our antitrust laws. Cooperation and coordination among international antitrust enforcers is more crucial than ever."

The Committee, co-chaired by a former Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust and a former chairwoman of the US International Trade Commission, is comprised of a distinguished panel of business, labor, academic, economic, and legal experts. Below is a list.

CO-CHAIRS

James F. Rill	Senior Partner, Collier, Shannon, Rill & Scott, Former Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust;
Paula Stern	President of the Stern Group, Former Chairwoman of the U.S. International Trade Commission;

MEMBERS

Zoe Baird	Senior Visiting Scholar, Yale Law School;
Thomas E. Donilon	Partner, O'Melveny & Myers, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs and Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Warren Christopher;
John T. Dunlop	Lamont University Professor, Emeritus at Harvard University, Former Secretary of Labor
Eleanor Fox	Walter Derenberg Professor of Trade Regulation at New York University School of Law;
Raymond V. Gilmartin	Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer of Merck & Company, Inc.;
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr.	Senior Partner, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld;
Steven Rattner	Deputy Chief Executive of Lazard Frères & Co.;
Richard P. Simmons	Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of Allegheny Teledyne Incorporated;
G. Richard Thoman	President and Chief Operating Officer of the Xerox Corporation; and
David B. Yoffie	Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration, Harvard Business School.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Merit E. Janow

Professor in the Practice of International Trade at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs.

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