April 18, 2001

For Immediate Release:

Ben Lilliston, 612-870-3416

Minneapolis - The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) draft Negotiating Text on Investment is available for public review and comment on the world wide web at www.iatp.org. Until now, all chapters of the FTAA negotiating document have been kept secret by governments. Trade ministers had agreed on April 7 to publish the entire negotiating texts after the Summit of the Americas meeting in Quebec City taking place April 20-22.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy President Mark Ritchie commented:

"Making this FTAA chapter on investment public on the world wide web is a small but real next step in the long process of bringing democracy and transparency to trade negotiations. It is unfortunate that most governments have not yet come to see the wisdom of being open with their citizens on policy proposals that could profoundly affect all of daily life. We hope that the rest of the secret text will be released by governments today or tomorrow so citizens and taxpayers can see what is being proposed in our name. Until now only corporate advisors to the negotiators have participated in the negotiation of this text, and even members of the U.S. Congress have had only conditioned access to these documents and have been prohibited from taking notes or making copies. "

The 42-page document covers several points of contention among participating countries, including:

· Will investor rights take precedence over labor, human and environmental rights, as defined in international protocols;

· The inclusion of the investor-state provision of NAFTA which gives corporations (but not citizens or NGOs) the right to sue governments directly through the dispute settlement mechanism;

· Prohibition of capital controls. Many countries argue that they help protect economies from financial instability;

· Prohibition of performance requirements on investors.