Geneva Redux

Begin with the fact that Switzerland is barely a country, more a loose collection of three language and two religious groups in various permutations. Put the banking in the north and the international organizations in the south and the watch industry more or less all over. Geneva itself is right near the French border and barely an hour from the great ski resorts of the Alps, some French, some Swiss, some are both depending on what direction you ski from the summit. Now combine with a price structure roughly as follows: Starbucks chai tea latte $12, Big Mac $17, mediocre cheese pizza $26, mediocre cheese pizza, salad and a beer $45, ok Indian dinner 62, pretty good Japanese dinner with wine $120, ok mid-level business hotel near train station $340 a night including breakfast and transit card good for free trams and buses. You get the idea. No idea how international civil servants do anything other than go home and eat pbj every night. I am told that the rental apartments are controlled by the municipal government as to both price and availability. You apply for an apartment and someone allocates you one eventually based on size of family and ability to pay. It is apparently almost impossible for a single person to get more than a one bedroom and difficult for married couples to upgrade to larger spaces unless there are new additions to the family. One can avoid this by buying but prices are astronomical.

Lots of really smart hard working people in the various secretariats of the different IGOs and NGOs around town. Like Washington, many are career, others cycle back and from between public and private sector. UNCTAD seems a bit clumsy organizationally but still the only place which makes any effort to identify and cater to the special needs of the LDCs in the competition area. Once, that meant suspicion of the MNCs of the developed world, now it seems more like trying to get competition policy eight for newer jurisdiction, almost always with sever resource problems. Most of these countries aren't members of the OECD and feel like outsiders at the ICN. Some of the sessions were a little painful, long on diplomacy and scripted interventions by the different delegations. But many had real questions from the heads of smaller agencies about cooperation, technical assistance, the relationship between antidumping and antitrust that I don't think they would have been comfortable asking in another multilateral forum. I left a little weary from the scripting and the too many speakers with eight minutes for their presentations but ultimately impressed by the energy of the delegates and the market niche of UNCTAD in the world of competition policy for the dozens of newer and smaller jurisdictions with no other natural home for their concerns. Plus, as always the schmoozing in the halls may be more important then the formal presentations and resolutions in the room.