EXISTING INTERNATIONAL CIVIL AVIATION ORGANIZATION (ICAO) POLICY 213 competitors. Conversely, State aid/subsidies may provide an important instrument to address market failures, such as providing essential air services to communities to support economic and social development. Laws and regulations have been developed by certain States and regional organisations to define state aid/subsidies, lay down disciplines for their use, introduce exante or expost assessment mechanisms, as well as provide for actions that States can take to counter their negative effects. In the air transport sector, which falls largely outside the Word Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Trade in Services framework, model clauses have been developed to cover state aid/subsidies, and an increasing number of air services agreements contain provisions on this issue. 4.2. Cooperation in the Field of Competition Under this section, ICAO has compiled several different mechanisms and arrangements, aimed at preventing anti-competitive behaviour and fostering compatible regulatory approaches to competition through bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation. Bilateral cooperation in the field of competition may be conducted through arrangements between competition authorities, intended to provide a framework for discussions on competition issues in view of taking consistent approaches. In the area of air transport, competition provisions may be included in bilateral Air Services Agreements to promote cooperation between the parties when applying their respective competition laws to air transport between them. At a regional level, membership in entities such as the European Union (EU), the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and the Western African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) may, to a varying extent, include common competition policies and legal frameworks, as well as structured coordination to ensure consistent implementation. At a more practical level, competition networks have been established, such as the European Competition network (ECN) or the ASEAN Experts Group on Competition (AEGC). Finally, forms of multilateral cooperation in the field of competition have also been developed with the help of competition authorities and regulators who participate and contribute to international fora such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations
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