AG/RES. 1493 (XXVII-O/97)

LEGAL DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATION

(Resolution adopted at the seventh plenary session, held on June 5, 1997)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN the report of the Permanent Council on the legal development of integration (AG/doc.3484/97); and

CONSIDERING:

That, as stated in resolution AG/RES. 1406 (XXVI-O/96), integration of the countries of the Hemisphere is one of the objectives of the inter-American system, and that the Charter of the Organization of American States provides that member states shall so direct their efforts and take the necessary measures to accelerate the integration process;

That the aforesaid resolution recommended to the Permanent Council that it convene a technical-legal meeting to address the various legal dimensions of regional economic integration to identify areas that could be addressed by concrete projects in this field in cooperation with regional and subregional integration mechanisms or with other institutions that share this inter-American objective;

That, pursuant to the aforementioned resolution, the Permanent Council convened a meeting of experts, held on March 11 and 12, 1997, in Montevideo, which considered the following topics: (i) legal relationship among the various integration agreements; (ii) application of integration law in national laws and relationship between the two; (iii) harmonization of national laws in integration processes; and (iv) possible OAS activities regarding the various integration processes; and

That, as a result of their discussions, "the experts concluded that the OAS could play a role in the legal development of subregional or hemispheric integration" and recommended that the OAS undertake, as appropriate, studies in particular areas and carry out other specific tasks such as those outlined in the Final Report of the Meeting of Experts of the OAS Working Group on Legal Development of Integration (OEA/Ser.K/XXXV.1, REDJI/doc.6/97),

RESOLVES:

1. To take note of the report of the Permanent Council on the legal development of integration.

2. To recommend that the Permanent Council, with the support of the General Secretariat and the Inter-American Juridical Committee, draw up a work plan in this area on the basis of the recommendations made at the Meeting of Experts of the Working Group on Legal Development of Integration. The Work Plan shall give priority, in its first stage, insofar as possible, to the following aspects:

a. To continue to conduct comparative studies of a descriptive nature on regulatory instruments governing regional, subregional, and extraregional integration schemes or free trade areas, with a view to their dissemination.

b. To organize a program designed to examine the legal issues resulting from the relationship between integration processes and treaties on free trade and possibilities for harmonizing them, taking into account the experiences of other integration organizations and mechanisms, as well as the recommendations of the Meeting of Experts.

c. To arrange for regular follow-up of legal development of integration by both government authorities with competence in this area and other experts.

3. To note that the activities described in the work plan will be carried out within allocated resources approved in the program-budget and other resources.

4. To request the Permanent Council to report to the General Assembly at its twenty-eighth regular session on the implementation of this resolution.