APPENDIX 5
ACRONYMS AND GLOSSARY

Agricultural Subsidies - The signatories agreed to eliminate or reduce certain subsidies on the basis of a colour code whose design, resembling traffic lights, was a Canadian suggestion. Red means all subsidies in that category must be eliminated, as with export subsidies. Yellow means measures that distort trade and must be restricted, while green means programs that are restriction-exempt because of their neutral effect on trade, as with agricultural research programs. At the conclusion of the Uruguay Round, negotiations on agriculture had bogged down, and the European Union demanded and got a special category, coded blue, that divides the yellow box into two classes: measures that are the subject of reduction commitments and measures that do not need to be reduced because they fall within production-limitation programs.

Andean Community - includes Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela; sometimes referred to as the Pacto Andino that came into being at the Cartagena Declaration of 1969, then signed under the Acta de la Paz in 1990, whereby it would be a free trade zone by 1992 and a customs union by 1995.

APEC - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation includes Australia, Brunei Darassalam, Canada, Chile, People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of Phillipines, Russia, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, the United States of America and Vietnam.

BITs - Bilateral Investment Treaties; in Canada, they are referred to as a Foreign Investment Protection Agreement or FIPA.

CACM - the Central American Common Market includes Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; the Managua Declaration was signed in 1960 with the intention of becoming a common market; it, in effect, became a free trade zone in 1993.

CARIBCAN - Canadian trade program whereby selective products originating in the Caribbean Basin are provided preferential tariff treatment.

CARICOM - the Caribbean Common Market includes Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Monserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad & Tobago; British Virgin Islands is an associate member. First formed under the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) in 1965 to liberalize trade within the region, renamed CARICOM under the Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973 and established a common external tariff (CET) in 1991.

Carve-in/Carve-out - term used by negotiators to refer to areas subject to the agreement and those excluded. Carve-out is equivalent to a general exception except for any expressly provided measure. Taxation is carved-out except for expropriation by taxation.

CIDA - Canadian International Development Agency.

Common Market - a customs union is supplemented by removal of all barriers to labour and capital movements between member countries.

CUSFTA - Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement signed in 1988.

Customs Union - a free trade agreement (FTA) is supplemented by the establishment of a common external tariff (CET) on goods and services from non-member countries.

Derogation - temporary measure to deviate from an obligation as in the case of safeguards.

Dispute Settlement - procedure used to settle disputes. State-to-state disputes propose a process that evolves from consultations to mediation or conciliation, arbitration, formation of a tribunal, a decision and procedures for non-compliance with a tribunal decision. Non-compliance can be met with measures of proportionate effect. Investor-state disputes propose a process that involves use of the competent courts or administrative tribunals of a Contracting Party.

ECLAC - United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean; CEPAL being the spanish acronym.

EFTA - the European Free Trade Association includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

EU - the European Union includes Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Expropriation - acquisition or nationalization of an investment. To be undertaken with due process of law and accompanied by prompt, adequate and effective compensation.

FTA - Free Trade Agreement, whereby member countries eliminate substantially all tariff and non-tariff barriers among themselves, but maintain their individual external tariff and non-tariff barriers. Rules of origin ensure that goods from outside countries are not able to circumvent a member's external high tariff by being transported through the territory of a low tariff member.

FTAA - Free Trade Area of the Americas.

G7 Countries - United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Canada.

GATS - General Agreement on Trade in Services.

GATT - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

General Exception - these provide signatories with an exemption from all aspects of the agreement.

GPA - Government Procurement Agreement.

Group of Three - FTA between Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.

IACOMHR - Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

IACHR - Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

IDB - United Nations Inter-American Development Bank.

ILO - International Labour Organization.

IMF - International Monetary Fund.

LAIA - Latin American Integration Association; ALADI being the Spanish acronym.

MAI - Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

MERCOSUR - Mercado Común der Sur or Common Market of the Southern Cone, which is a FTA and customs union that includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay which was signed in 1991 at the Treaty of Asuncion; Bolivia and Chile are associate free trade members.

MFN - most-favoured nation, whereby a foreign investor will be treated no less favourably than any other foreign investor.

MMT - Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl.

NAALC - North American Agreement on Labour Co-operation.

NAFTA - North American Free Trade Agreement, including Canada, Mexico and the United States and signed in 1993.

NGOs - Non-Governmental Organizations.

NT - National Treatment, whereby treatment of trade in goods and services and foreign investment will be the same as the treatment of domestic trade and investment.

Non-discrimination - established in terms of national treatment and most-favoured nation treatment.

OAS - Organization of American States whose charter was signed at the Bogotá conference in 1948 now includes 34 members.

OCS - Organization of Caribbean States is a forum for discussing economic and security issues signed in 1994.

OECD - Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

PAHO - United Nations Pan American Health Organization.

Performance Requirements - a list of measures that cannot be imposed on an investor in conjunction with the investment. The draft list approximates the TRIMs of the WTO and similar provisions in the investment chapter of the NAFTA. A subsidy, incentive or "advantage" can be given to an investor on condition that the investor undertakes some performance requirement and in this case the ban on performance requirements mentioned above would not apply.

Preferential Agreements - whereby a country provides access to another country's market without requiring reciprocal access.

Reservations - these are taken by countries for measures that do not conform with MFN and national treatment obligations under the agreement. This provision grandfathers existing policies and may allow them to be expanded (see Standstill and Rollback).

Safeguards - temporary measures inconsistent with the obligations can be taken in the case of serious balance of payments or external financial difficulties, or difficulties associated with monetary or exchange rate policies, or for measures approved by the IMF.

SAGIT - Sectoral Advisory Group on International Trade.

Sectoral Agreements - whereby a reduced duty or duty-free access is provided among member countries on a limited range of products.

Standstill and Rollback - Standstill occurs when country reservations are made and a measure cannot become more restrictive over time; it may agree to relax or remove the restriction over time in which case Rollback occurs. A party may be "bound" by its reservation which means it will not make it more restrictive but can change it by making it less restrictive and is the same as Standstill in this regard. An "unbound" reservation allows a country to maintain a non-conforming measure and to alter it in the future in any way.

Transparency - the requirement that contracting parties make publicly available their laws, regulations, procedures, administrative rulings and judicial decisions.

TRIMs - Trade Related Investment Matters.

TRIPs - Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights.

UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

UPD - OAS Unit for the Promotion of Democracy.

WTO - World Trade Organization.