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USCIB Letter on Investment in the WTO
October 9, 2001
Mr. Joseph Papovich
Assistant USTR - Services, Investment and Intellectual Property
Executive Office of the President
600 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20508
Dear Mr. Papovich:
On behalf of the members of the US Council for International Business’ Committee on International Investment, I am responding to your request for our views on the Harbinson text for investment in the WTO.
As a point of departure, I refer to the Council’s May 10, 2001 letter to Gloria Blue, in which our position on investment in the new round is set forth in detail. Summarizing, our position was that a comprehensive agreement on rules with high standards and the elimination of barriers to investment would take some time to achieve. Consequently, we recommended a “staged” approach, whereby elements common to the WTO – transparency, national treatment (after entry) and TRIMs enforcement – would be negotiated in the first phase. The more difficult issues for WTO to handle, e.g., national treatment on entry, expropriation, dispute settlement, transfers of profits, would require more preparatory work to achieve our overall objective, and be dealt with in a second stage of negotiations.
The Council members have not changed their view on our overall objective or on our view that the best way to achieve this objective is through a staged approach, in which preparatory work for each stage has been achieved.
Unfortunately, the Harbinson text does not meet our objective, both on substance and staging. Regarding substance, it omits in its “core” many elements that are critical for US investors: transfers of profits and capital, expropriation, and investor to state dispute settlement. Further it opens the door to special and differential treatment, a feature which the Council opposes, particularly in the investment context. With respect to staging, we believe the declaration should acknowledge the value of careful preparation and give priority to the issues common to all WTO agreements.
We recognize the diverse views on investment held by WTO member economies, as well as the strong desire by some economies to proceed with negotiations. We urge that the U.S. press for a text in the final declaration which, should negotiations proceed, would advance the goal of achieving high quality agreements to protect investment outside of the WTO and reduce barriers to investment.
I hope you will find these comments helpful.
Sincerely,
R. Scott Miller
Chair, Committee on International Investment
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