Free Trade Area of the Americas - FTAA

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Public
FTAA.soc/civ/74
May 23, 2003

Original: English

FTAA - COMMITTEE OF GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON THE PARTICIPATION OF
CIVIL SOCIETY

CONTRIBUTION IN RESPONSE TO THE OPEN AND ONGOING INVITATION

Name(s) John Murphy, Vice President, Western Hemisphere, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Executive Vice President, Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA)

Mark Smith, Executive Vice President, U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council
Organization(s) U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA)
U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council
Country United States of America

U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America
U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council

Recommendations for the Dispute Settlement Negotiating Group

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA), and the U.S. Section of the Brazil-U.S. Business Council welcome this opportunity to present our views on the emerging Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). We strongly support free trade in the hemisphere, and we have previously submitted recommendations to the Committee of Government Representatives on the Participation of Civil Society and to the previous seven meetings of the Americas Business Forum giving our perspective on how the agreement should be framed.

To build confidence in the integrity of the FTAA, the agreement should establish a dispute settlement mechanism. There is now a considerable body of experience with the dispute resolution arrangements in the WTO and certain regional agreements that can guide negotiators in design of a mechanism suitable for the FTAA.

Specifically we recommend that the governments in the hemisphere agree during the Quito FTAA Ministerial to take the following actions to build a strong foundation for the final FTAA Agreement, including endorsing the following measures:

  • The FTAA Agreement should encourage and facilitate the use of arbitration and other means of alternative dispute resolution for the settlement of private commercial disputes.
     

  • The FTAA Agreement should require governments to provide appropriate procedures and remove legal and other obstacles to ensure the observance of agreements to arbitrate and for the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards.

    • We would like to underscore the importance of - and reiterate our support for - the following recommendations, which were endorsed during the dispute settlement negotiation workshop at the VI Americas Business Forum in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

  • We support the recommendation set forth during the dispute settlement negotiation workshop at the 2001 VI Americas Business Forum to establish a dispute settlement mechanism.

    • We support the recommendation set forth during the dispute settlement negotiation workshop at the 2001 VI Americas Business Forum to ratify the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitration Awards of 1958 and the Convention of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID Convention.
     
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