The United States’
position is that agricultural subsidies and
the barriers they raise to imports is a
subject that should be discussed in the
World Trade Organization. Brazil and
Argentina, for their part and in differing
degree, refuse to accept the inclusion in
the FTAA of the liberalization of services (financial
and telecommunication services, among others),
government procurement, or intellectual
property (patents, to be precise).
The participation of the
Andean Community and its Member Countries
Insofar as Market Access is concerned, the
Andean Community made offers to liberalize
goods, services, investments and public
sector procurement. In the case of goods,
Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela presented a
single list, but for institutions and
services, the lists were individual.
Advances were made in Tariff Negotiations,
based on the following principles: the
negotiations must be congruent with the
stipulations of Article Twenty-four of the
1994 GATT; differences in the levels of
development and sizes of the economies must
be taken into account in the offers and
during the negotiation process; the
liberalization will be progressive; the
offers will depend upon the general results
of the negotiations; existing conditions for
access among the hemispheric countries will
be considered and the commitments will not
involve setbacks in the degree of
liberalization attained; and the commitments
will be organized in such a way that they
are simple, transparent and easily managed.
The
entire tariff universe will be subject to
negotiation (leaving open the possibility
for considering exceptions, as a result of
the negotiation).
It
was agreed that the tariff elimination will
be linear and will allow for the possibility
of non-linear exceptions. The debate over
the possible application of the Most Favored
Regional Nation –MFN-- Principle was left
pending. It was also decided to make the
basic tariffs reported the starting point
for the Tariff Elimination Program and to
adopt a “stand-still” on those tariffs.
A
consensus was reached that tariffs will be
fully eliminated for the bulk of trade
within a period of no more than 10 years and
that a 4-phase or basket system will be used
for the elimination process: A: Immediate;
B: no more than 5 years; C: no more than 10
years; y D: Longer periods (the maximum
periods were not defined).
Based on the above, initial offers were
exchanged, offers were reviewed and requests
were matter to better offers.
In
regard to Rules of Origin, work was advanced
on a text of the rules and general criteria
for the pertinent chapter. The CAN put
forward general criteria for Specific
Requirements of Origin (SROs) that have been
addressed by tariff subheadings.
To
conclude, attention should be drawn to the
exchange of information that took place
during the negotiation of market access,
particularly information about import and
export tariffs and statistics that are
collected in the Hemispheric Database and
the inventory of special regimes applied in
the hemisphere.
The
main discrepancies arose over the treatment
of domestic aids and the implementation of
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures.
In
the case of the Negotiating Group on
Agriculture, the major differences stemmed
from the fact that some countries (the
Andean, among them) intended to implement
the principles of the WTO’s SPS Agreement,
while other countries wanted the WTO’s SPS
Agreement only to be mentioned, but not for
its principles to be implemented.
The
Negotiating Group on Competition Policy
considered it necessary for the countries to
have rules and a national – subregional
institution responsible for competition. It
also addressed anticompetitive policies,
among them cross-border practices and
elements of competition policy that refer to
specific monopolies and State enterprises.
Lastly, it referred to cooperation
mechanisms.
No
consensus was reached among the Andean
countries as to the approach to be taken in
the Negotiating Group on Services, with the
result that two countries presented lists
using a negative approach and three, a
positive one.
Work
was advanced in the Negotiating Group on
Government Procurement, on the text of the
chapter, which includes clauses on the
transparency of procedures.
In
the Negotiating Group on Investment, the
Andean Community submitted its offers, as
organized into two parts, within the
stipulated period. In the first part, the
Andean Community as a whole presented its
offers, with general reservations and
exceptions by substantive subject area and
in the second, each country separately
(Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru), annexed
exceptions and reservations within the
framework of its own legislation.
The
areas in which negotiations bogged down in
the Negotiating Group on Dispute Settlement
include: differential treatment for
countries with different levels of
development and size of the economies; the
nature and effects of the preliminary and
final reports (or resolutions) of the
neutral groups; the establishment of a
second entity (permanent organ of appeal);
and the system of sanctions, suspension of
benefits and compensation, in the event of
non-compliance with decisions.
Negotiations on intellectual property have
been at a standstill since last year, the
last draft having been submitted in November
2003.
The
negotiation of the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) has been suspended since mid-2003
because of the differences in position
between the Representatives of Brazil and of
the United States who Co-Chair the FTAA
Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC). 
