FTAA Negotiations at Year End 2000: Ready for Acceleration?

 
As the year 2000 came to an end, the FTAA negotiations entered a critical phase, scrambling to meet the deadline of the Buenos Aires Ministerial Meeting and the Quebec City Summit, both in April, 2001. The FTAA Secretariat and all of the delegations prepared to move the Secretariat to Panama early in the new year. Sources close to the negotiations say that bracketed texts of chapters for all nine negotiating groups are finished and have been presented to the vice ministers on the Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC). The key will be just how much bracketing there is in the texts. The TNC is reviewing the chapters to make comments and suggestions to the trade ministers at their meeting in Argentina.

Against this background come rumblings from Chile, the US press and the Inter-American Dialogue (A Time for Decision: U.S. Policy in the Western Hemisphere) that the deadline for completing the FTAA negotiations should be moved to 2003 instead of 2005. Some observers suggest that the Bush administration may be amenable to this idea.

US and Brazilian support will certainly be necessary for an acceleration of the FTAA timetable to take place. The Brazilians will probably favor a longer process to give their industries time to adjust and become more competitive with US and Canadian imports, and for Mercosur to become more consolidated. The United States must obtain fast-track authority from Congress for there even to be a chance of moving the deadline back to 2003, or, for that matter, to ensure success for the 2005 deadline. Bush's victory makes fast-track more likely, but the animosity left over from the election and the thin Congressional majority may still make it a battle.

Negotiating Groups and Committees
 
In addition to the nine negotiating groups, three committees prepared reports to the TNC with recommendations in their respective areas of responsibility.

1. Negotiating Group on Agriculture - The NGAG discussed export subsidies and other measures and practices that distort hemispheric trade in agricultural products, as well as sanitary and phytosanitary measures. The relationship between this group and the FTAA Negotiating Group on Market Access was part of the debate.
 
2. Negotiating Group on Competition Policy - The NGCP received a joint submission from CARICOM, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador, Bolivia, Guatemala and Nicaragua proposing a study of competition policies in smaller economies and economies without competition regimes.
 
3. Negotiating Group on Dispute Settlement - The NGDS reviewed a proposed questionnaire submitted by some delegations as a means to pursue the discussion of different mechanisms to facilitate and encourage the use of arbitration and other alternative dispute settlement procedures to resolve private disputes in the framework of the FTAA. It also completed an inventory of dispute settlement mechanisms, procedures and legal texts established in existing trade and integration agreements, treaties and arrangements in the hemisphere and in the WTO.
 
4. Negotiating Group on Government Procurement - The NGGP discussed the scope, requirement for suppliers, formulation of specifications for the bidding process, procedures for hearing and reviewing complaints/appeals, and institutional issues. It reviewed the concept and subject of public sector procurement and principles/ treatment granted to domestic and foreign goods, services, public works and their suppliers.
 
5. Negotiating Group on Intellectual Property Rights - The deliberations of the NGIP covered all the items on its agenda. A number of issues were agreed upon for inclusion in the report to the TNC, including: general provisions and basic principles; trademarks; geographical indications/appellations of origin; copyright and neighboring rights; protection of folklore; patents; layout-designs (topographies) of integrated circuits; relationship between the protection of traditional knowledge and intellectual property and relationship between access to genetic resources and intellectual property; utility models; industrial designs; plant varieties; undisclosed information; enforcement; unfair competition; and anticompetitive practices.
 
6. Negotiating Group on Subsidies, Antidumping and Countervailing Duties - The NGSACD compiled information on the legislation and practices of participating countries. It discussed options to further disciplines related to subsidies and the issue of the link between trade policy and competition, including antidumping measures.
 
7. Negotiating Group on Services - The NGSV was set up to establish disciplines to progressively liberalize trade in services, so as to permit the achievement of a hemispheric free trade area under conditions of certainty and transparency; and to ensure the integration of smaller economies into the FTAA process.
 
8. Negotiating Group on Investment - The NGI was established to develop a fair and transparent legal framework to promote investment through the creation of a stable and predictable environment that protects the investor, investments and related flows, without creating obstacles to investments from outside the hemisphere. The NGI finished its draft report to the TNC early, including the draft text of the Investment Chapter.
 
9. Negotiating Group on Market Access - The NGMA discussed in detail the participating countries' points of view on tariffs and non-tariff measures, rules of origin, customs procedures, safeguards, technical barriers to trade, and the modalities of negotiation concerning the reduction of tariffs. Significant advances were achieved in each of these areas and were incorporated into reports to the TNC.

a. Committee of Experts on Customs-related Business Facilitation Measures - The meeting continued working toward the implementation of the customs-related business facilitation measures approved by the trade ministers at the Toronto Ministerial Meeting, including the technical assistance required by some FTAA member countries to advance in their implementation. The group agreed to the publication of the matrix listing implementation status and technical assistance needs. The TNC has provided technical assistance and training and will provide more in the future, improving the efficiency and integrity of customs agencies in member countries.
 
b. The Consultative Group on Small Economies moved toward the idea of special and differential treatment for small economies, using a case-by-case approach. So far the committee has dealt with generalities, but its work will be helpful to groups that have focused on technical matters.
 
c. The Joint Government-Private Sector Committee of Experts on Electronic Commerce received reports and recommendations from private sector participants on how to advance the use of e-commerce among the countries of the hemisphere. Among the subjects covered and reported to the TNC were: protection of privacy in electronic commerce; consumer protection issues in electronic commerce; user issues: building marketplace confidence for e-commerce security, encryption, authentication and digital signatures; criminal and civil responsibility in electronic commerce; the implications of electronic commerce for domestic taxation; practical aspects of collecting tax revenue; business facilitation and business users; implications for small and medium-sized enterprises; network access/reliability and electronic commerce; and standards and electronic commerce.

www.ustr.gov - www.ftaa-alca.org - Department of State Office of the US Trade Representative