The Federal Trade Commission would take a look at past merger deals including those in agriculture to see if regulators were too easy on the companies involved. That’s what FTC Chairman nominee Joseph Simons told Senators during his recent confirmation hearing. That’s very positive according to Organization for Competitive Markets Executive Director Joe Maxwell.
He’s also encouraged that Simons background as heading up the antitrust division of a prominent law firm gives him the necessary experience to deal with all the mega mergers and consolidations happening in both ag and non ag sectors of the U.S. economy.
Maxwell says the most concerning mergers OCM would like to see reviewed include Bayer-Monsanto and Bunge (bun-gee) being talked about with Archer Daniels Midland.
Simons also said at his recent Senate confirmation hearing that if confirmed he would police the conduct of big agribusinesses.
