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The Alliance of the Pacific: A New Instrument of Latin American and Caribbean Economic Integration?

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Latin American and Caribbean International Institutional Law

Abstract

This chapter considers a selected number of the structure and aims of the Alliance of the Pacific (the Alliance). It evaluates some of its key features and provides an outline of its background, internal structure and functioning. It takes the MERCOSUR as a point of reference where appropriate, since a conceptual comparison between a MERCOSUR-type free trade area and an Alliance-type free trade area can show the relative uniformity of these types of trading conglomerates but also their functional diversities. The second part of the chapter endeavours to assess the Alliance’s effectiveness in the achievement of its statutory aims and, where possible, will discuss some proposals for reformulating the structure and functioning of the Alliance’s agreement.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The text (in Spanish) of the Framework Agreement is available at: http://alianzapacifico.net/documents/2014/Acuerdo_Comercial.pdf. Accessed 10 November 2014).

  2. 2.

    Costa Rica and Panama—which currently are ‘candidate observers’ (observadores candidatos) to the Alliance—are expected to join as full members once free trade agreements with all the four current member states have entered into force.

  3. 3.

    See Ramírez 2013; Saltamacchia Ziccardi 2014.

  4. 4.

    According to Article 8 of the Framework Agreement, the decisions of the Council of Ministers and any other agreements adopted shall not modify or replace the bilateral, regional or multilateral economic, trade and integration agreements in force among the parties.

  5. 5.

    Amplius Oelsner 2005, p. 97 ff.

  6. 6.

    It is worth noting that an earlier attempt of integration was made in Latin America in 1960 under the Treaty of Montevideo, which established the Latin American Free Trade Association (LAFTA). See Sect. 7.2.1 and Chap. 2 of this book. On the subject, see also Milensky 1973, p. 289.

  7. 7.

    See Sect. 7.3.1.

  8. 8.

    See M Naím, The Most Important Alliance You’ve Never Heard Of, The Atlantic, 17 February 2014, at: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/the-most-important-alliance-youve-never-heard-of/283877/. Accessed 11 November 2014.

  9. 9.

    As observed by the majority of commentators, the main purpose of MERCOSUR is to bridge the gap between member states’ economies and the world economy by seeking international competitiveness of domestic products through technological advancement. See also Chap. 6 in this book.

  10. 10.

    The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a FTA currently being negotiated by nine countries: United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. For a commentary of the TPP draft of November 2013, see: Polanco 2013, p. 231 ff; Vincent 2013.

  11. 11.

    The Preamble includes the commitment to create: ‘a predictable legal framework for trade in goods and services, and investment’.

  12. 12.

    See the Preamble of the Framework Agreement which stresses that: ‘that regional economic integration is one of the instruments for Latin American countries to make progress towards their sustainable economic and social development’.

  13. 13.

    See also F Peña, El MERCOSUR y sus perspectivas: una opción por la inserción competitiva mundial, paper delivered at the seminar on the outlook for subregional integration processes in Latin America and South America, Brussels, 4–5 November 1991, at: http://ctrc.sice.oas.org/geograph/south/mstit2_e.pdf. Accessed 11 November 2014, who stresses that: ‘More than enforceable legal commitments, this agreement (the ‘Framework Agreement’) proposes objectives and expresses the willingness to work together, setting the institutional framework for doing so’.

  14. 14.

    Treaty on the European Union (TEU), Consolidated version, C 115 (2008), available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:115:SOM:EN:HTML. Accessed 12 November 2014.

  15. 15.

    Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), Consolidated version, C 83/49, Official Journal of the European Union, 30 March 2010.

  16. 16.

    This is also true after the entry in force of the Treaty of Lisbon which allows member states to withdraw from the EU. Under Article 50 of the TEU, a member state would notify the European Council of its intention to secede from the Union and a withdrawal agreement shall be negotiated between the EU and that state. Amplius Nicolaides 2013.

  17. 17.

    Valvis 2008.

  18. 18.

    Amplius Williamson 2003, Chap. 10.

  19. 19.

    Ibidem.

  20. 20.

    See: Valvis 2008, stressing that LAIA embodied an innovative technique to by-pass the unconditional application of the most-favoured nation clause (MFNC). Two or more member states were enabled to build bilateral or multilateral discriminatory economic blocks, framed as Partial Scope Agreements (PSA), freezing the operation of the MFNC and curtailing its automatic application. Multilateralization would then take place not automatically but through unilateral negotiations with remaining LAIA member states. On the history of this organization, see: Reinalda 2009, p. 475 ff.

  21. 21.

    Treaty of Asunción, Treaty Establishing a Common Market, Asunción, 26 March 1991, entered into force 1 January 1995, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, UN Doc. A/46/155 (1991); 30 ILM 1041; see Chap. 6 in this book.

  22. 22.

    The Treaty of Asunción includes five annexes that established: (a) an automatic, linear and generalized programme of elimination of intra-zone tariffs, (b) a system of rules of origin, (c) a transitory system of intra-zone safeguards, (d) a time frame for the setting up of a dispute settlement mechanism and (e) ten working groups to promote the coordination of specific economic and sector policies. Annex I had to be fully incremented by 1994 (1995 for Paraguay and Uruguay) and the other Annexes were envisaged only for the transitory period until 31 December 1994. See: Alonso García 1997.

  23. 23.

    See Mercosur, Tribunal ad hoc, Laudo sobre Aplicación de Medidas Apropiadas para Prevenir y/o Hacer Cesar los Impedimentos a la Libre Circulación Derivados de los Cortes en Territorio Argentino de vías de Acceso a los Puentes Internacionales Gral. San Martín y Gral. Artigas (Uruguay v. Argentina), 6 September 2006, at: http://www.sice.oas.org/dispute/mercosur/laudo%20librecirculacion_006_s.pdf. Accessed 10 June 2013.

  24. 24.

    Amplius Lorenzo and Vaillant 2005, p. 2 ff.

  25. 25.

    See Chap. 2 in this book; for further details concerning the aims and structure of the LAFTA, see: O’Keefe 2009, p. 5 ff.

  26. 26.

    On the ALADI, see Chap. 2 in this book; Opertti Badán 2006, pp. 213–256; Ferrer Vieyra 2003, pp. 529–542.

  27. 27.

    Ramírez 2013.

  28. 28.

    The text of the 2008 Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Treaty can be found at: http://www.comunidadandina.org/ingles/csn/treaty.htm. On the subject, see Chap. 3 in this book; Amoroso Botelho 2013; Manzolillo 2011, p. 203 ff.

  29. 29.

    See: Lamrani 2012; Santulli 2012.

  30. 30.

    See: Fernández 2012.

  31. 31.

    See SELA, The Pacific Alliance in Latin American and Caribbean Integration, Permanent Secretariat. Caracas, Venezuela, May 2013 (SP/Di N° 1–13) at: http://www.sela.org/attach/258/EDOCS/SRed/2013/07/T023600005209-0-SP-DI_N_1-13_ALIANZA_PACIFICO_EN_LA_INTEGRACION_LA_Y_CARIBENA-INGLES.pdf. Accessed 15 September 2014, stressing that the Alliance provides a new integration space aimed at shaping up a process of convergence of existing agreements among member states. See also Rivarola Puntigliano and Briceño-Ruiz 2013, p. 2 ff.

  32. 32.

    Additional Protocol to the Framework Agreement of the Pacific Alliance, Cartagena de Indias, 10 February 2014 at: http://www.sice.oas.org/Trade/PAC_ALL/Index_PDF_s.asp. Accessed 11 November 2014.

  33. 33.

    Incidentally, it is worth stressing that Colombia and Peru are also part of the Andean Community (CAN).

  34. 34.

    Amplius Seatzu 2014, p. 165 ff.

  35. 35.

    Amplius Perry 2014.

  36. 36.

    On the contrary, Article 5 of the Framework Agreement suggests that the principle of reciprocity is not a core principle of the Alliance.

  37. 37.

    Additional Protocol to the Framework Agreement of the Pacific Alliance, n. 32 above.

  38. 38.

    Andean Sub-regional Integration Agreement, May 26, 1969, (1969) 8 ILM 910. On the subject, see: Avery and Cochraine 1973, pp. 198–199.

  39. 39.

    This is confirmed in Article 8 of the Framework Agreement which states that the acts of the Alliance (Council of Ministers) do not affect the legal validity of any other (bilateral, regional or multilateral) agreements already in force between the member states.

  40. 40.

    See e.g. Article 5 of the Framework Agreement, n. 32 above.

  41. 41.

    See Malthouse E, Pacific Alliance eliminates 92 % of tariffs between members, Santiago Times, 11 February 2014 at: http://santiagotimes.cl/pacific-alliance-eliminates-92-percent-tariffs-members/. Accessed 12 November 2014 (stressing that the Alliance has agreed to abolish tariffs immediately on 92 % of the goods traded between the member states, with the remaining tariffs to be dismantled in the following years).

  42. 42.

    See: European Parliament-Policy Department, The Pacific Alliance: Regional Integration or Fragmentation? 10 January 2014 at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/briefing_note/join/2014/522318/EXPO-AFET_SP(2014)522318_EN.pdf. Accessed 12 November 2014).

  43. 43.

    Ibidem.

  44. 44.

    See e.g. Oliver 2010, p. 239 ff.

  45. 45.

    See e.g. Klabbers 2009, p. 24.

  46. 46.

    Amplius European Parliament-Policy Department, n. 42 (stressing that the meetings of the ministers have been very frequent: the most recent one, held in Mexico on 9 January 2014, was the tenth since the launch of the Alliance).

  47. 47.

    European Parliament-Policy Department, n. 42 above.

  48. 48.

    Ibidem.

  49. 49.

    On the subject, see the classical work of Fisher 1967, p. 841 ff.

  50. 50.

    Amplius European Parliament-Policy Department, n. 42 above.

  51. 51.

    ECJ, Case 207/83 Commission v. UK [1985] ECR, p. 1202.

  52. 52.

    Framework Agreement, n. 1 above, Article 3, para 1(a).

  53. 53.

    Framework Agreement, n. 1 above, Article 8.

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  1. International and European Union Law, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Francesco Seatzu

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  1. Law & Criminology, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom

    Marco Odello

  2. Facoltà di Giurisprudenza, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy

    Francesco Seatzu

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Seatzu, F. (2015). The Alliance of the Pacific: A New Instrument of Latin American and Caribbean Economic Integration?. In: Odello, M., Seatzu, F. (eds) Latin American and Caribbean International Institutional Law. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-069-5_7

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