(EU) and the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR)? - FDCL

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74 EDF, has issued a similar complaint against the Republic of Argentina 193 and also the German company Siemens is demanding compensation payments: The news agency NfA, Nachrichten für Aussenhandel, reported that: “Siemens wants 500 million US-dollars from Argentina Berlin (vwd) – The Siemens AG, Munich, has demanded 500 million US-dollars in compensation payments from Argentina for the cancellation of a contract. As emanated from a note directed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday, the company has filed for an arbitration proceeding at the International Center of Investment Disputes of the World Bank. Siemens argues that, through the cancellation, Argentina has infringed an investment treaty with Germany.” 194 Complaints of private companies against states at the ICSID on the basis of bilateral investment treaties have risen from five in 2000, to twelve in 2001, to fifteen in 2002. 195 What is explosive about these allegations, which are based on BITs, is first of all that such allegations can only be undertaken by foreign private investors and that domestic investors are not allowed to take such legal actions, and second of all that there is a procedural detail that every complaint filed on the basis of BITs is held before an international arbitration courts, with special emphasis on business and investors’ rights and not on social or environmental aspects. Luke Eric Peterson of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) comments, regarding the wave of individual complaints against the Argentinian government: “A troubling feature of this growing spate of cases against the Argentine Republic, is that foreign investors are mounting a series of individual ad-hoc arbitrations which may challenge essentially the same government measures. Because these arbitrations are proceeding in parallel, and Tribunals are not strictly bound by the determinations of other (or earlier) Tribunals, the stage is set for a series of potentially divergent or even conflicting rulings.” 196 It is not surprising that, given these experiences of the Republic of Argentina, the population of the neighboring country of Uruguay is already sensitized to the 193 Les Echos, September 12, 2002: EDF lance une procédure contre le gouvernement argentin. 194 Own translation of the following original text: “Siemens will 500 Mio USD von Argentinien. Berlin (vwd) - Die Siemens AG, München, fordert von Argentinien 500 Mio USD Schadenersatz für die Stornierung eines Auftrags. Wie aus einer Mitteilung an die US-Börsenaufsicht SEC vom Montag hervorgeht, hat das Unternehmen beim Internationalen Zentrum zur Beilegung von Investitionsstreitigkeiten (ICSID) der Weltbank ein Schiedsgerichtsverfahren beantragt. Mit der Stornierung habe Argentinien gegen ein Investitionsabkommen mit Deutschland verstoßen, argumentiert Siemens.” Taken from: NfA, December 9, 2003, http://www.MERCOSURinfo.com/al/index.shtml. 195 Peterson, Luke Eric (International Institute for Sustainable Development – IISD): Research Note: Emerging Bilateral Investment Treaty Arbitration and Sustainable Development, August 2003, p. 3. 196 Ibid., p. 5.
problem of privatizations. Already on December 12, 1992 the Uruguayan population had voted in a referendum against a privatization of electricity, telecommunication and petroleum. Also moved by the Argentinian experience the Uruguayans collected 280,000 signatures against the privatization of water in 2003 in order to hold a referendum in November 2004, which would permit a constitutional change and define the utilization and protection of water resources as a fundamental right which has to be administered exclusively by the public authorities. 197 A large part of the extensive Guaraní water reservoir (“Acuífero Guaraní”) is located in Uruguayan territory. Likewise a majority of Uruguayans on December 7, 2003 voted against “law 17,448” which would have permitted the privatization of the national petroleum company Ancap. 198 Because as long as state enterprises are not privatized, there is no danger of becoming the object of claims of private investors, which are written down in the existing international investment treaties. Uruguay has signed 15 bilateral investment treaties so far, of which seven have entered into force. 199 Brazil in this context (still) has a special status, as the Brazilian congress has not ratified one single investment treaty (yet). Nonetheless, for decades Brazil has been leading the list of FDI recipient (emerging) countries. Taking a look at FDI in Brazil over the last 30 years (from 1969 to 2000) from the perspective of competition between European and US-American transnational corporations, 200 the FDI of European corporations do not fall short of the U.S. companies: In 1969 there were fourteen U.S. and twenty European transnational corporations among the Brazilian Top-100 list of major companies. Four of the European companies were German, three British and three French. 201 In 2000 there were already five companies each from Germany, France and Italy and three from Spain among the Top-100, totaling 29 European transnationals versus 19 from the U.S.A. Telefónica together with Telefónica Celular alone had sales of 6 billion US-dollars followed by Volkswagen do Brazil with sales of 5.73 billion US-dollars. 202 197 El País, Uruguay, October 31, 2003: “[U]na reforma constitucional que declara el agua, su uso y preservación, como derecho humano fundamental, asegurando además la gestión de los recursos hídricos en manos del Estado.” 198 El País, Uruguay, December 10, 2003. 199 http://www.worldbank.org/icsid/treaties/uruguay.htm. 200 A comparison: If you take a look at the competition from the viewpoint USA-Germany the following global image can be drawn: The total volume of U.S. direct investment amounts to 1.5 billion US-dollars, which is only approximately double that of German direct investment. See: Peter Rösler: Ausländische Direktinvestitionen in Lateinamerika, Ibero-Amerika Verein der Deutschen Wirtschaft, July 30, 2003. There a direct comparision is made of Germany and the “competitor USA”: “Zweitwichtigster Industriepartner Lateinamerikas nach den USA: In der verarbeitenden Industrie Lateinamerikas stehen deutsche Unternehmen weiterhin an 2. Stelle nach ihren Wettbewerbern aus den USA.” Own translation: “The second most important industrial partner of Latin America after the U.S.: In the Latin American manufacturing industry German companies continue to rank second behind their competitors from the U.S.” 201 Sérgio Oliveira Birchal: European Direct Investment in Brazil, 1969-2000, p. 3-4. 202 Ibid., p. 16. 75
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Christian Russau Enforcement of int
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Preface Since the end of 1999 the C
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If the “Interregional Association
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10 1.1 Negotiations of the “Inter
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12 A similar agreement of the so-ca
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14 tute in the eyes of many countri
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(EU) and the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR)? - FDCL

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