Executive Summary

Written Comments of The Humane Society of the United States

Dispute Settlement

1. The settlement of disputes is an important part of the FTAA and should be as inclusive as possible. The current text contains some troubling language that is neither transparent not allows for the participation of civil society in the process. These issues need to be addressed in a manner that provides for greater transparency in the process and a system that is more open to the participation of civil society.

Chapter on Agriculture

2. The negotiations on agriculture need to address the issues of animal welfare and environmental protection. The FTAA Parties should consider the economic benefits of adopting more humane, animal friendly and environmentally responsible agriculture production methods.

General and Institutional Issues

3. A mechanism should be created to allow for the formal participation of civil society in the FTAA process. This would be a bold and innovative proposal and exactly the type of mechanism that will be important to the future of the FTAA.

4. Capacity building and technical assistance are important aspects of the FTAA process but have not received either the attention or the resources necessary to address the needs of the region. The FTAA Parties should create a mechanism whereby governments, NGOs, corporations and other private parties could join forces to begin to address the capacity building needs of the region.

Conclusion

5. To be successful and gain popular support, the FTAA Agreement must be innovative and forward thinking, including to the greatest extent possible the input and participation of civil society in the negotiations and in the overall process.


April 30, 2003

VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL
soc@ftaa-alca.com

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OVERNIGHT INTERNATIONAL DELIVERY

Secretaria del Area de Libre Comerico de Las Americas (ALCA)
8 Oriente N º 1006
Paseo San Francisco
Centro Histórico, Puebla 72000
Mexico

Re: Open and Ongoing Invitation to Civil Society
Comments on the Second Draft Consolidated Texts of the Free Trade Area of the Americas

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

Pursuant to the notices in the Federal Register¹ , The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) hereby provides comments on the second draft of the consolidated texts of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and other issues for consideration. The HSUS is actively involved in international trade policy and serves as a member of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee (TEPAC). The HSUS participated in the First Regional Seminar on the FTAA held in Merida, Mexico in July 2002 and is actively involved in promoting animal protection, transparency, the participation of civil society, and environmental issues in these negotiations.

As a threshold matter, it is important to point out that there are currently no negotiations in the FTAA on environment or labor. Although these areas may pose some difficulties for certain Parties to the FTAA negotiations, it is simply untenable to exclude these areas from the negotiations. The FTAA is an important tool that may provide the basis for greater economic development in the Western Hemisphere. However, if environmental protection issues, sustainable development and labor issues are not addressed in the agreement then it will ultimately be unsuccessful. It is extremely important that civil society in each of the 34 countries have opportunities to engage in the FTAA process to provide insight and guidance to the negotiators. The citizens of each FTAA Party must be provided with adequate information about the process and encouraged to effectively engage with their representatives in the negotiations.

Sustainable development is more than a catch phrase; it is the new paradigm in economic relations because developing countries must be provided the opportunity to develop in a manner that is sustainable and equitable. The pursuit of economic expansion and increasing trade without any consideration about the effect such efforts will have on the environment, citizens, animals and shared natural resources is not prudent and will not lead to sustainable development.

The Parties negotiating the FTAA are in a position to craft a free trade agreement that is substantially improved over previous agreements. The lessons learned in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) should be employed in the FTAA negotiations. There are clear lessons to be learned from the problems identified in these previous agreements. Those problems should not be perpetuated in the FTAA.

The HSUS believes that the 34 Parties to the FTAA negotiations can and must do better than in past negotiations and agreements. The FTAA represents a unique opportunity to right the wrongs and correct the errors found in previous multilateral, regional and bilateral free trade agreements. The HSUS respectfully requests that the FTAA Parties endeavor to do better and reach a fair and equitable agreement that will benefit a majority of citizens, economic development, sustainable development, the environment, animals and natural resources.

In this submission, The HSUS provides comments on the Dispute Settlement chapter, the Agriculture chapter and the Institutional chapter. The HSUS will provide comments on other chapters in subsequent submissions.