Free Trade Area of the Americas - FTAA

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Public
FTAA.soc/civ/73
May 16, 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
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 Competition Policy 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.

The FTAA should mandate that member countries apply strong national competition policies, to promote cooperation among national competition authorities and to avoid activities that encourage or tolerate private anti-competitive behavior, such as cartels.

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 measure:

  • Rules on official monopolies and state enterprises should be included in the text of the FTAA Agreement and should ensure that when the state participates in commercial activities, its FTAA trading partners are not subject to discrimination.

  • A national postal authority should not be permitted to use revenues earned in supplying services to which it has a monopoly, or to use taxation of private express delivery services providers to cross-subsidize its express delivery services that compete with private suppliers. Moreover, private suppliers should not be subject to discriminatory fees or regulations and should be guaranteed equal, non-discriminatory access to essential facilities.

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