Documents

OEA/Ser.P
AG/RES. 1813 (XXXI-O/01)
5 June 2001
Original: Spanish

TRADE AND INTEGRATION IN THE AMERICAS

(Resolution adopted at the third plenary session, held on June 5, 2001;
subject to review by the Style Committee)

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

HAVING SEEN the report of the Permanent Council and the Permanent Executive Committee of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CEPCIDI) on the implementation of resolution AG/RES. 1720 (XXX-O/00);

RECALLING resolutions AG/RES. 1720 (XXX-O/00), AG/RES. 1689 (XXIX-O/99), AG/RES. 1581 (XXVIII-O/98), AG/RES. 1516 (XXVII-O/97), AG/RES. 1430 (XXVI-O/96), CIDI/RES. 9 (I-E/01), CIDI/RES. 99 (V-O/00), CIDI/RES. 63 (IV-O/99), and CIDI/RES. 46 (III-O/98), entitled "Trade and Integration in the Americas"; AG/RES. 1534 (XXVIII-O/98), "Support for and Follow-up to the Summits of the Americas Initiatives"; AG/RES. 1438 (XXVI-O/96), "Relationship between the Special Committee on Trade and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development"; AG/RES. 1349 (XXV-O/95), "Inter-American Summits Management"; and resolution AG/RES. 1220 (XXIII-O/93), "Establishment of the Special Committee on Trade (SCT)", in which member states noted that the Organization of American States (OAS) is an appropriate hemispheric forum for dialogue on trade matters;

BEARING IN MIND:

The Declaration of Santiago of the Second Summit of the Americas in which the Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere directed their ministers responsible for international trade to begin negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and reaffirmed their determination to conclude the negotiation of the FTAA no later than 2005, and in which they also reaffirmed their determination to make concrete progress by the end of this century, and expressed their appreciation for the significant contribution of the Tripartite Committee;

The Declaration of Quebec City of the Third Summit of the Americas in which the Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere directed their ministers responsible for international trade "to ensure that negotiations of the FTAA Agreement are concluded no later than January 2005 and to seek its entry into force as soon as possible thereafter but, in any case, no later than December 2005"*;
The Declaration of Quebec City of the Third Summit of the Americas in which the Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere attach great importance to the design of an agreement that takes into account the differences in the size and levels of development of participating economies;

The Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas in which the Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere urged the "Tripartite Committee institutions to continue to respond positively to requests for technical support from FTAA entities"; and requested "the institutions, according to their respective internal procedures, to favorably consider requests for technical assistance related to FTAA issues from member countries, in particular from the smaller economies, in order to facilitate their integration into the FTAA process"; and

The Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas in which the Heads of State and Government of the Hemisphere instructed "our representatives in the institutions of the Tripartite Committee to continue securing the allocation of the resources necessary to contribute to the support of the work of the FTAA Administrative Secretariat";

NOTING:

The Ministerial Declaration of San José adopted by the Ministers of Trade at their Fourth Ministerial Meeting in San José, Costa Rica, in March 1998, in which they recommended to their Heads of State and Government that they initiate negotiation of the FTAA in accordance with the objectives, principles, structure, venue, and other decisions set forth in their Declaration, and acknowledged and again expressed their appreciation to the Tripartite Committee for the technical and logistical support given during the preparatory phase of the FTAA negotiations, and requested that the respective institutions of the Tripartite Committee continue to provide the appropriate existing resources necessary to respond positively to requests for technical support from FTAA entities, including reallocation for this purpose if necessary;

The Ministerial Declaration of Toronto adopted by the Ministers of Trade at their Fifth Meeting in Toronto, Canada, in November 1999, in which they "recognize and appreciate the analytical, technical, and financial support that continues to be provided by the institutions comprising the Tripartite Committee…. This support has been essential to the conduct of the negotiations to date, and we ask the institutions of the Tripartite Committee to continue to provide such assistance for FTAA-related matters"; and

The Ministerial Declaration of Buenos Aires adopted by the Ministers of Trade at their Sixth Ministerial Meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April 2001, in which they "appreciate the analytical, technical, and financial contributions made by the Tripartite Committee … to the different FTAA entities. [They] acknowledge that this support has been important to the conduct of the negotiations to date, and [they] encourage these institutions to continue to collaborate in the process of Hemispheric integration";

CONSIDERING that economic diversification and integration, trade liberalization, and market access constitute one of the priorities established in the Strategic Plan for Partnership for Development 1997-2001, and that the process of creating the FTAA is a fundamental element in this context; and

REAFFIRMING the commitment of the Organization of American States to support the process of free trade and economic integration in the Hemisphere, and to reiterate the importance of the contribution of the General Secretariat and, in particular, the Trade Unit to this process,

RESOLVES:

1. To take note of the report of the Permanent Council and the Permanent Executive Committee of the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CEPCIDI) on compliance with resolution AG/RES. 1720 (XXX-O/00), "Trade and Integration in the Americas."

2. To instruct the General Secretariat to continue providing analytical support and technical assistance through the Trade Unit, and conducting related studies as part of the Tripartite Committee or as requested by the respective bodies established in the Ministerial Declarations of San José, Toronto, and Buenos Aires under the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) process.

3. To instruct the General Secretariat to continue providing technical assistance related to FTAA issues to member countries that request it, particularly smaller economies, as requested by the Trade Ministers in the Ministerial Declaration of San José, and as reiterated at the ministerial meetings in Toronto and Buenos Aires, and as requested in the Plan of Action of the Third Summit of the Americas.

4. To reiterate support for the collaborative activities on trade and integration of the Trade Unit with the Tripartite Committee, and for those cooperation activities with other specialized regional, subregional, and multilateral organizations and institutions.

5. To instruct the Permanent Council to continue to provide the appropriate resources necessary to respond positively to requests for technical support from FTAA entities, including the reallocation of funds for this purpose if necessary.

6. To instruct the General Secretariat to submit, by November 15, 2001, the 2002 annual Work Plan of activities of the Trade Unit to CEPCIDI for its consideration and approval.

7. To instruct the General Secretariat to continue providing semi-annual written progress reports on the activities of the Trade Unit, including information on its level of budget execution to the Permanent Council and CEPCIDI for their review.

8. To instruct the Trade Unit, through its Foreign Trade Information System (SICE), to continue its work in providing trade and trade-related information to the Hemisphere through its Internet Website; to continue its work in support of the FTAA process by maintaining, as a member of the Tripartite Committee, the official FTAA Website; to maintain, as a member of the Tripartite Committee, on an ongoing basis a calendar of deadlines established by the negotiating groups for inputs from delegations; and to manage, as a member of the Tripartite Committee, the Document Distribution Service (DDS), a secure, confidential, instant, and reliable distribution system of the FTAA negotiation process documents.

9. To take note of the important achievements of SICE, in particular the measures taken to broaden its trade and trade-related information and its client base, and to support its continued operations.

10. To direct that the mandates in the preceding paragraphs be executed within the allocated resources approved in the program-budget and other resources.

11. To request the Permanent Council and CEPCIDI to report to the General Assembly at its thirty-second regular session on the implementation of this resolution.