MINING UNDER FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

• Jurisdiction: Derecho Internacional

Mining and Oil and Gas Law, Development, and Investment - Book 2
(Apr 2007)
CHAPTER 15A
MINING UNDER FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS
Félix Peña
Director
Foreign Trade Institute
Buenos Aires, Argentina

FÉLIX PEÑA

Félix Peña is a specialist in international economic relations and negotiations, economic integration and foreign trade policy. He has a Law degree from the Universidad del Litoral Law School in Santa Fe, a Doctor degree in Law from the Universidad de Madrid and a European Law degree from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, where he also studied economics. At present, he is Professor at Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero and Director of the Master in International Trade Relations; Director of the Institute of International Trade - BankBoston Foundation; Member of the Executive Board of the Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI); Chairman of the Academic Council of Fundación Export-Ar; Member of the list of panelists of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism of Mercosur (Olivos Protocol); Member of the Group of Experts on EU-Mercosur relations at the Chaire Mercosur - Sciences-Po, Paris and independent consultant. He has a large practical and academic experience in the field of international trade negotiations. He was Undersecretary of Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Economics in charge of Mercosur affairs. Previously, he was Undersecretary of Economic Integration in Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, also in charge of Mercosur affairs. Previously he was Deputy Manager for Integration at the IADB; Undersecretary of Economic International Relations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Expert and then Director of the INTAL- IADB. He has also been consultant for several international organizations and also Executive-Director of the Argentina-Europe Business Club. He has written many articles, both in the legal and in the international relations field, including a book in colaboration with Celso Lafer "La Argentina y el Brasil en el Sistema de Relaciones Internacionales" (Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, 1973). His more recent book is "Momentos y Perspectivas. La Argentina en el mundo y en América Latina, Eduntref, Buenos Aires, 2003. He is member of the Editorial Council of El Cronista and writes frequently in newspapers of Argentina and Brasil (La Nación, El Cronista and, Valor Económico). For his most recent articles and papers in the field of international trade law and negotiations, see www.felixpena.com.ar.

Especialista en relaciones económicas internacionales, derecho del comercio internacional e integración económica. Cursó sus estudios primarios (Colegio Mariano Moreno) y secundarios (Colegio Nacional nº 2) en Rosario. Se recibió de Abogado en la Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe (1956-62); de Doctor en Derecho en la Universidad de Madrid (1962-65); de Licenciado en Derecho Europeo en la Universidad Católica de Lovaina, Bélgica (1963-65), donde también cursó estudios en economía (1964). Puede consultarse una traducción al español en www.felixpena.com.ar. En la actualidad es Director del Instituto de Comercio Internacional de la Fundación BankBoston; Profesor Titular en Relaciones Comerciales Internacionales de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero (UNTREF); Director de la Maestría en Relaciones Comerciales Internacionales y del Núcleo Interdisciplinario de Estudios Internacionales de la UNTREF; Director del Módulo Jean Monnet en la UNTREF; Consejero y miembro de la Comisión Directiva del Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI); Presidente del Comité Académico de la Fundación Export-Ar; Consultor académico de la Red Mercosur; Asesor del Foro Empresario Unión Europea-Mercosur (MEBF). Integra la lista de árbitros por la Argentina del mecanismo de solución de controversias del Mercosur - Protocolo de Olivos. Ha integrado la lista de árbitros del CIADI y de la OMC. Fue consultor externo del Estudio jurídico Moltedo (2000-02). Integró el Grupo de Expertos que preparó el proyecto de Protocolo del Parlamento del Mercosur (2005). Conferencista y participante frecuente en numerosos eventos académicos y empresarios, en la Argentina y en otros países. Autor de numerosas publicaciones (artículos publicados en libros y en revistas especializadas) en materia de integración económica, derecho del comercio internacional y relaciones económicas internacionales. Más recientemente publicó el libro - con prólogo del Embajador Carlos Manuel Muñiz-"Momentos y Perspectivas: la Argentina en el Mundo y en América Latina", Eduntref 2003. Colaborador ocasional de los diarios La Nación (Suplemento de Comercio Exterior); El Cronista - cuyo Consejo Editorial integra -; Valor Económico y la Gazeta Mercantil. Miembro del Consejo Académico de la revista Archivos del Presente y de la Revista de Comercio Exterior, FUNCEX, Río de Janeiro. Es miembro del Consejo Académico de la revista "Archivos del Presente". A solicitud de la Cancillería Argentina, en 2003 colaboró como experto con el Presidente Fernando Henrique Cardoso en la elaboración de un informe sobre los métodos de trabajo de las Cumbres Iberoamericanas. En 2004, fue consultor del BID en la evaluación de un proyecto con la Secretaría de Industria y Comercio, del Ministerio de Economía y de la Producción. Ha enseñado como profesor en numerosas universidades de la Argentina (Universidad del Salvador; Universidad de Belgrano; Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales; Universidad de Buenos Aires - Maestría de Mercosur) y también en el Brasil (Universidad de Sao Paulo; Universidad Luterana del Brasil).

March 2007

SOME NOTES ABOUT REGIONAL PREFERENTIAL AGREEMENTS - INCLUDING FTA'S - INCLUDING A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE MERCOSUR EXPERIENCE

Background notes for the presentation of Félix Peña at the "Mining Under Free Trade Agreements" panel. Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Meeting: "International Mining and Oil & Gas Law, Development and Investment", co-sponsored with Section Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law - International Bar Association.

Buenos Aires, April 16-18, 2007.

Some short introductory remarks

The objective of those notes¹ is to give some background information about Regional Preferential Agreements (RPA's)² - with a particular reference to the Mercosur case - that could be useful to follow our presentation in the panel about "Mining under the Free Trade Agreements".

This background information is not related specifically with the natural resources and mining sector in those preferential agreements. Should be reminded that normally and according to the GATT-WTO rules, preferential agreement should cover all sectors and substantially all trade among member countries. They can not be limited to some sectors or products only.

However those agreements could include special references to the mining sector - either in terms of trade and eventually services and investment preferences - or even exceptions to the general rules of an agreement - or technological cooperation - when rich mining countries are involved.³ They could have, for example, a strong impact in imports from a mining country of capital goods and technologies related with mining exploration and development.⁴

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More concrete references to the mining sector in some RPA's and more specifically on Mercosur, will be included in the oral presentation at the panel.

The WTO system and the proliferation of different modalities of regional preferential agreements

Regional preferential agreements (RPA's), both among neighbors and non-neighbors countries and in their different modalities - including Free Trade Agreements (FTA) -, are today a relevant reality of the economic competition, both at the global and regional level.

The proliferation of regional preferential agreements (RPA's) is one of the more notorious changes in the international trade scenario of the last two decades. It is not a new phenomenon.

On the contrary, in historic terms, the real new event is the existence of a global framework of multilateral trade disciplines, initiated in 1947 with GATT and further developed in 1994 with WTO creation.

Recently, Pascal Lamy, the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said that the world faces the prospect of 400 preferential trade agreements by 2010 and the challenge of ensuring they contribute to the health of world trade. He added that "these preferential agreements contradict the non discrimination principle which is one of the cornerstones of the WTO. If this is so, why are so many countries ready to accept rules and disciplines at the bilateral level that they are not prepared to accept at the multilateral level?"⁵ In his excellent presentation he analyses several reasons behind this trend toward the proliferation of regional preferential agreements and the systemic challenges they represent for WTO.

Even if eventually from a theoretical point of view it could be wise to recommend the limitation of the trend toward new RPA's, it seems difficult to imagine many countries behaving according to such recommendation.

On the contrary, what could be necessary and possible is to improve global collective disciplines to assure that a higher number of old and new RPA's could really be consistent with the WTO.

The...