International Assistance Program
The FTC helps countries around the world to develop and enhance their own competition and consumer protection programs. We explain how competition and truthful advertising and marketing advance economic efficiency, consumer welfare, and consumer choice.
Technical Assistance to Developing Competition and Consumer Protection Agencies
- FTC lawyers and economists have helped countries with little experience to set up and strengthen framework competition and consumer protection laws or enforcement institutions. This includes training on basic investigative skills and techniques. On competition matters, we frequently work jointly with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division.
A detailed description of our work in the competition area can be found at U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s And Department of Justice’s Experience With Technical Assistance For The Effective Application of Competition Laws (February 6, 2008)
A description of our work in the consumer protection area can be found at The United States Federal Trade Commission Technical Cooperation Program on Consumer Protection. - We also make available certain of our training materials for training your own lawyers and economists.
- The FTC operates a new program that offers fellowships at the FTC for foreign agency employees.
Contact Us
If your agency would benefit from this type of assistance, please click here to contact us. If you have a consumer issue, please click here.
How We're Funded
Our technical assistance program is, in many instances, funded through cooperation with the U.S. Agency for International Development, and in some cases with the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Commercial Law Development Program of the Department of Commerce. In some cases, we use our own funds.
Background Resources
- Resources from Workshop on Charting the Future Course of International Technical Assistance (February 2008)
- Joint Report Charting the Future Course of International Technical Assistance At the Federal Trade Commission and the United States Department of Justice (October 2009).
- Report to OECD on The U.S. Experience in Competition Law Technical Assistance: A Ten Year Perspective (February 2002)