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on November 12 in Brussels, that if there should be negotiations on the investment<br />

topic, these should occur on the multilateral level of the WTO.<br />

Since Cancún Brazil has been positioning itself within the Alliance of the G-20,<br />

G-22, G-X 236 , and has relatively strong negotiation partners on its side and insists<br />

on the universal guarantee of national scopes of design, development-focussed<br />

industrial and fiscal policies, the maintenance of local-content reglamentation and<br />

performance requirements. 237 The Brazilian negotiation delegation had already<br />

urged at the tenth round of the EU-MERCOSUR bi-regional negotiation committee<br />

(X. BNC) from June 23-27, 2003, that first a preliminary revision of the negotiation<br />

texts should occur and methods, negotiation modalities and general and specific<br />

definitions related to the investment issue should be treated, before the topic itself<br />

could be negotiated. 238<br />

Regarding the investment issue the Brazilian government has agreed – in accordance<br />

with its offer to the EU – to only admit post-establishment investment<br />

guarantees, i.e., guarantees for investment which have already been realized in the<br />

country, as opposed to the so-called pre-establishment guarantees according to<br />

which foreign investors, who feel discriminated against, e.g., by changes in legislation<br />

(environmental requirements, performance requirements, local-content rules,<br />

etc.)– without having materialized an investment in the country yet - can take legal<br />

action at international courts against this “indirect” expropriation. 239 The Lula-government<br />

explicitly opposes this possibility for so-called investor-to-state disputes in all<br />

its free trade negotiations. 240 In the same way the Brazilian government advocates<br />

exceptions in the area of liberalizing capital and profit-transfers, in order to, e.g., protect<br />

national economies against abrupt capital flight or speculative attacks in times<br />

of crises. 241 However, it does not go as far, as to mention the term “regulations on<br />

236 The Canadian Secretary of Trade Pierre Pettigrew in a lapidary manner called the G-X: “G- more or less.” See: Valor<br />

Econômico, October 16, 2003.<br />

237 “Por considerar um tema “sensível”, o governo quer transferir para a Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC) a<br />

discussão sobre regras para investimentos, que poderiam limitar a liberdade dos países para estabelecer medidas<br />

de política industrial com favorecimento a empresas instaladas no país. Mas os negociadores do Brasil aceitam<br />

discutir o chamado “acesso a mercados em investimentos”, garantias ao investidores estrangeiros de tratamento<br />

idêntico ao concedido para o investidor nacional, em setores a serem estabelecidos com a negociação. Essa<br />

garantia, aliás já está na Constituição brasileira.” Valor Econômico, 29.10.2003. Own translation: “The [Brazilian]<br />

government considers the discussion on investment rules to be a sensitive issue, as they [the investment rules]<br />

could restrict the countries’ liberties to establish industrial policy-measures which favor resident companies.<br />

Therefore the Brazilian government wants to transfer the issue to the WTO. But the Brazilian negotiators accept<br />

to discuss the so-called “market access for investment”, i.e., guarantees for foreign investors to receive identical<br />

treatment as the national investors, in sectors which are to be established in the negotiation process. This<br />

guarantee is by the way already in the Brazilian Constitution.”<br />

238 For an explication of the genaral position of Brazil see: Peterson, Luke Eric: Brazil Remains Wary of International<br />

Investment Rules, in: INVEST-SD, June 1, 2003.<br />

239 Valor Econômico, October 29, 2003.<br />

240 Ibid.<br />

241 Folha de São Paulo, November 2, 2003.<br />

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