| Uruguay Bilateral Investment Treaty |
The United States and Uruguay announced their intention to
negotiate a Bilateral Investment Treaty on November 18, 2003, at the conclusion
of the Free Trade Area of the Americas Ministerial in Miami, Florida. The
decision to negotiate this agreement sprang from the work of the United
States-Uruguay Joint Commission on Trade and Investment. The Joint Commission
was established following President Jorge Batlle's February 2002 visit to the
White House. Since April 2002, the Commission has pursued an ambitious work plan
designed to strengthen the U.S. - Uruguay trade relationship. This BIT was
concluded on September 7, 2004 in Washington, DC.
The United States
recently completed a rewrite of the model text it has used in BIT negotiations
over the past two decades and the U.S.-Uruguay BIT was the first to be based on
this new U.S. model text. The new model text includes provisions developed
by the Administration to address the investment negotiating objectives in the
Trade Promotion Act of 2002. The new model BIT text is substantively
similar to the investment chapters of the free trade agreements the United
States has concluded during the past two years. |
