Source: Panorama Brasil - SP - 10/11/2009

BRASÍLIA - The Senate Economic Affairs Commission (CAE) approved this Tuesday (10) a bill that restructures the Brazilian Competition Defense System. The proposal, which will still be analyzed by two commissions (the Environment, Consumer Protection and Inspection and Control and the Constitution and Justice), prohibits any possibility of interference by the new Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) in referring decisions, for example, revisions to service tariffs that are under the supervision of regulatory agencies, such as telephony and electricity.

The proposal's rapporteur, Romero Jucá (PMDB-RR), said that he will present a request to the two committees for the matter to go straight to the plenary, which would speed up the project's progress.

The proposed new structure should reduce bureaucracy in the process of defending competition. This Tuesday (10th), the merger and merger processes of companies do not have a deadline to be considered by Cade. According to the chairman of the board, Arthur Badin, if the project is approved, 94% of the processes currently under analysis at the agency may be resolved in 20 days and the most complex in a maximum of 180 days.

Already considered by the Chamber, the proposal was changed by the senators, which obliges, regimentally, the appreciation of the changes by the deputies. This will occur after the Senate has passed the bill.