Sanctions against cartel operators do not reach the "optimal level" to deter price-fixing, the OECD has said.
In a report which said "many billions" of dollars were lost due to price-fixing every year, the OECD said cartels harmed consumers and damaged economic efficiency. Some $55 billion was lost due to 16 large cases taken by OECD members in 1996-2000, it said.
The Republic was one of only nine OECD countries which provide for the imprisonment of figures involved in cartels, although no Irish cases were cited among the six listed. But despite a trend towards more rigorous sanctions in cartel cases, accurate quantification of the harm from hard-core cartels was not currently possible.
The report said: "OECD countries are increasingly aware of the magnitude of the problem and of the need to impose severe sanctions on cartel participants so as to deter such conduct. Sanctions in recent cases in some countries reflect this growing awareness."
It added: "While there is noticeable trend toward more rigorous sanctions in cartel cases, available data indicate that sanctions against enterprises and natural persons have not yet reached the optimal level for deterrence."
The report has been published a day before senior finance and development officials from the 30-nation OECD open a two-day meeting to assess the global economic recovery and the struggle to close the gap between rich and poor nations. The annual ministerial gathering of the OECD comes at a time of heightened trade friction between two of the most powerful voices in the group, the US and the EU.
The meeting was initially to have provided a venue for talks between US Trade Representative Mr Robert Zoellick and EU counterpart Mr Pascal Lamy aimed at easing transatlantic tension sparked by US moves to impose tariffs on steel imports and boost agricultural subsidies.
But the US delegation said yesterday - a day after President George W Bush signed into law a law calling for a 70 per cent increase in support to US farmers - that Mr Zoellick would not attend the ministerial sessions.
OECD Secretary General Mr Donald Johnston on Monday criticized the farm bill, warning that the US initiative was hardly likely to encourage other members of the World Trade Organisation to open their agricultural sectors to outside competition.
