GAMI INVESTMENTS, INC. - NAFTAClaims

P R O C E E D I N G S
PRESIDENT PAULSSON: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the hearing on issues of jurisdiction and admissibility in the
case of GAMI versus Mexico.
For the record, I'm presiding at this arbitration, Jan
Paulsson. The co-Arbitrators are, to my right, Professor Reisman; to my
left, Dr. Lacarte Muro. The Administrative Secretary of the Tribunal,
Zach Douglas, is seated to my left as well.
Could we have again for the record introductions of the
delegations and the observing delegations? I will turn to GAMI first.
MR. AGUILAR: My name is Guillermo Aguilar Alvarez, and I am
joined by Chip Roh; Don Liebentritt, an officer of GAMI; Lucia Ojeda,
Sloane Strickler, and Alicia Cate.
MR. PEREZCANO [Interpreted from Spanish]: Thank you very
much, sir. Good morning. Good morning, members of the Tribunal. I am
Hugo Perezcano, Legal Adviser of the Ministry of Economics and the
representative from Mexico in this procedure.
To my left, Lilia Ochoa, General Coordinator of Legal Affairs
of the Ministry of Agriculture. To her left, Ms. Jimena Valverde, head
of the unit for Legal Affairs of the Department of Economics.
Next, Luis Alberto Gonzalez, Legal Adviser of the Department
of Economy; Mr. Cameron Mowatt, an external attorney of the Department of
Economics; Mr. Rovirosa, attorney of the Department of Agriculture; Mr.
Irwin Alpshuler, also external legal adviser. To my right, Mr. Stephan
Becker, external attorney of the Department of Economy; and Mr. Mullick,
also an external attorney of the Department of Economy and the
representative of the Legal Department for Negotiations here in the city
of Washington.
Thank you very much.
MS. TOOLE: My name is Jennifer Toole. I'm here with the
United States Department of State on behalf of the United States
Government, and with me I have Wara Serry-Kamal, also of the Department
of State; Carrielyn Guymon, also of the Department of State; and Mark
McNeill of the Department of State.
PRESIDENT PAULSSON: Thank you very much.
MR. HEATH: Doug Heath with the Canadian Government.
PRESIDENT PAULSSON: Welcome. Thank you.
We will do our best to conclude today, as the circumstances
of the weather are of great interest to all of us now in terms of
planning for our traveling. However, the Tribunal accedes to the request
of the Respondent in terms of the time available for oral rebuttals this
afternoon. In other words, to the extent that you find it useful to take
a full hour, with the same right of response, obviously, we will accord
that, on the understanding, obviously, that you are responding to what
you will have heard in the morning and not holding anything back for the
afternoon.
We also wish to take advantage of the fact that we are
meeting here to discuss matters of housekeeping and how we might go
forward under the foreseeable hypotheses that we have at the end of the
afternoon. So we will be sure not to depart without having some notion
of how we'll go forward.
That being said, this morning's exercise, as the Tribunal has
understood the agreement of the parties, will consist of a presentation
limited to 90 minutes, starting with the applicant on the exception on
jurisdiction and admissibility, namely, the Respondent, a half-hour break
following that, and then leading up to lunch, a maximum of 90 minutes
response by the Claimant responding on