For the past six years, ECLAC’s subregional headquarters in Mexico has been monitoring conditions for market competition in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama. The office has produced about 30 research reports, all pointing to the same conclusion: market regulatory agencies urgently need to be strengthened. Monopolistic practices affect competition and the general welfare of the population by maintaining high tariffs and prices for goods and services.

These distortions, which are frequent in Mexico and Central America, are a result of the lack of adequate legal and institutional frameworks for competition during the process of privatizations, mergers and acquisitions that took place in the nineties.

The consequences have been particularly serious in monopolistic public services, such as air transportation, telecommunications, banking and electricity.

ECLAC’s work is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada, with which ECLAC is exploring a new stage of research.

ECLAC’s subregional headquarters in Mexico is currently advancing new research on air transportation in Central America and the pharmaceutical industry in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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