From March 27-29, 2019, Professor Huang Yong, the Director of UIBE’s Competition Law Center, at the invitation of the American Bar Association (ABA), went to Washington DC to participate in the 67th Annual Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting hosted by the ABA and gave a speech at the meeting.

On the afternoon of March 28th, Professor Huang Yong conducted an in-depth discussion on the “Trade Wars, Antitrust Casulties?” forum with many experts, including: Julie Soloway, Co-Chairman of the International Committee of the ABA Antitrust Branch and Partner of Blakes Law Firm (Canada); Rambod Behboodi, former Adviser of the WTO Regulations Bureau and Partner of King & Spalding Law Firm (Geneva); Abbott Lipsky, Professor from George Mason University and former Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Justice; and Eduardo Perez Motta, former Chairman of the Mexican Federal Competition Commission and Advisor of the SAI Law Firm (Mexico). They focused their discussion on the relationship between competition policy and trade policy, the competition enforcement procedures, and international cooperation. Professor Huang Yong held that since the implementation of China’s antitrust laws ten years ago, the professionalism of antitrust law enforcement has been continuously strengthened and remarkable achievements have been made. However, China’s antitrust law still requires further improvement. The tightening of administrative litigation standards and the deepening of international cooperation in law enforcement provides space for this improvement.

The ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting, held annually in Washington, USA, is the most influential antitrust event in the world. At this session, Wu Zhenguo, the Director of the Antitrust Bureau of the China’s State Administration of Market Supervision, made his first appearance at the ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting after the merger of antitrust law enforcement agencies and delivered a speech at the “Review and Prospect of China's Anti-monopoly Law” forum. The guests of the forum included: Joseph Simons, Chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission; Makan Delrahim, Assistant Secretary of the US Department of Justice and Director of the Antimonopoly Bureau; and Margrethe Vestager, Vice President of the European Commission and Member of the Antitrust Commission. Moreover, more than 3,000 government antitrust enforcement officials, private lawyers, in-house legal counsels, scholars, judges, economists, and businessmen from dozens of countries and regions attended this meeting.