Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI)

• Agreed to in 1983.  Under the CBI, the United States provides favorable trade benefits to Caribbean Basin nations.  
• The Initiative provides special tariff programs to goods produced in most Caribbean and Central American countries.
• As of June 1999, legislation was pending in the U.S. Congress to enhance the CBI agreement possibly to provide for greater CBI-NAFTA parity and possibly to include petroleum and its derivatives in the tariff program.

Group of 3 (G3)

• Established in 1995; members are Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela.
• Initially set for a minimum of 3 years, the agreement has been renewed for an indefinite period.
• Objectives are the elimination of tariffs among member nations over a ten year period and to add more members.
• Total 1997 GDP: $586 billion
  

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

• Entered into force in 1994; members include Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
• NAFTA’s goals include:
• Fostering increased trade and investment among the three members
• Providing for  the elimination of nearly all tariffs on most traded goods and services by 2003  
• Provisions regulating investment, services and intellectual property among members  
• Side agreements covering labor and the environment among member nations  
• Total 1997 GDP: $8.8 trillion

Central American Common Market(CACM)

• Founded in 1960;  members include Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.  
• Relatively successful at lowering trade barriers among its member countries.  
• Created trade agreements with other countries within the Americas, such as the Dominican Republic.
• Total 1997 GDP: $45 billion.

Andean Community

• Established in 1993; members include Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.  
• Common external tariff adopted in 1995.  
• Intra-Community trade was valued at $5.33 billion in 1998.
• Total 1997 GDP: $274 billion

Mercosur  (Southern Market)

• Took effect in 1995; members include Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.  
• Associate membership granted to Bolivia and Chile in 1996. 
• Goals of Mercosur include:
• Free transit of production goods, services and factors between the member states
• Elimination of customs rights and lifting of non-tariff restrictions on the transit of goods
• Adoption of common external tariffs and  trade policies with regard to nonmember states or groups of states
• Coordination of positions in regional and international commercial and economic meetings
• Coordination of macroeconomic and sectoral policies of member states relating to foreign trade, agriculture, industry, taxes, monetary systems, exchange and capital, services, customs, transport and communications
• Total 1997 GDP: $1.17 trillion
  

Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

• Established in 1973; members include Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago. Haiti given provisional membership in 1998.
• CARICOM’s objectives include:
• Eestablishing a common market regime to coordinate and regulate economic and trade relations among members.
• Coordination of foreign policy among members
• Functional cooperation including the efficient operation of certain common services
• Total 1997 GDP: $22 billion (including Haiti)
  

• NAFTA covers coal and coal gas, crude oil and petroleum products, natural gas, uranium, electricity, liquefied petroleum gases propane, butane and ethanol and some primary petrochemicals, ethylene, propylene, battalion and butadiene.
• NAFTA specifies that governments shall not apply restrictions, except in very limited situations, regardless of whether these restrictions are import fees, quotas, minimum or maximum export requirements or import price requirements. NAFTA prohibits export taxes unless the same tax is adopted on exports of goods to all Parties and on goods destined for domestic consumption.
• NAFTA affirms each Party’s right to license imports and exports of energy and basic petrochemical goods. Any system of licensing must be consistent with NAFTA and GATT/WTO rules on export and import restrictions.
• NAFTA does not preclude commodity price differentials between domestic and export markets. While governments cannot establish minimum or maximum import or export prices, commodity price differentials between domestic and export markets that arise as indirect effects of the application of permissible government measures, would not be considered contrary to this provision.
• NAFTA reaffirms a Party’s ability to provide incentives in the oil and gas sector in order to maintain its reserve base. NAFTA sets out certain Mexican reservations in relation to energy and petrochemical goods and related services and investment. It describes the energy and petrochemical sector activities currently reserved to the Mexican state, and indicates that private investment is not permitted in these activities in Mexico and also limits the extent to which cross-border trade in services applies to these areas. NAFTA permits the Mexican oil and natural gas monopoly, PEMEX, to enter into arrangements to transport natural gas or petrochemical goods for Parties wishing to import or export these products.  NAFTA describes the types of investment which will be permitted in non-utility electricity generation in Mexico. Under NAFTA, Mexico will permit private electricity generation for own use or for sale to CFE, the national electricity monopoly. It  also allows non-utility private electricity generation for export to another Party. CFE will be permitted to enter into arrangements to transport such electricity to the border.
• NAFTA  details  Mexico’s exceptions to the Agreement’s general obligations on the use of import and export restrictions, as required by the Mexican Constitution. Mexico is permitted to restrict the granting of import and export licenses for the sole purpose of reserving foreign trade in certain goods to itself (and Mexico would likely grant such licenses exclusively to PEMEX).
  

U.S. Trade and Development Agency (TDA)

• Venezuela Gas Recovery
• Feasibility Study ($375,000)
• Venezuela Corpoven Gas to Liquids Conversion
• Feasibility Study ($309,000)
• Colombia Petrochemical Complex
• Feasibility Study ($510,000)
• Trinidad and Tobago LNG Project
• Feasibility Study ($700,000)
• Mexico ClyFC Power Distribution Automation
• Feasibility Study ($446,800)
• Brazil Petroflex Cogeneration Plant
• Feasibility Study ($140,000)
• Brazil Seival Mine-Mouth Coal-Fired Power Project
• Feasibility Study ($470,000)
• Bolivia Rural Electrification Privatization Study
• Feasibility Study ($302,000)

U.S. Department of Energy

Through its involvement with the U.S. Initiative on Joint Implementation(USIJI), the DOE provides technical support to projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gases and promoting sustainable development.  Projects in Central and South America include:

• CAPSA Project-Argentina
• Conversion of gas turbines from simple cycle to combined cycle
• Santa Teresa Hydroelectric Project-Guatemala
• Construction of hydroelectric dam
• Wind Energy Project-Chile
• Construction of a 37.5 megawatt wind energy facility

Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)

• $200 million in financing for a 390 mile natural gas pipeline and 480 MW power generating facility extending from Bolivia to Cuiaba, Brazil.
• Estimated cost of project:$570 million.

World Bank

• Argentina-Renewable Energy in the Rural Market
• $40 million in financing

Inter-American Development Bank

• Argentina-Transportadora de Gas del Sur S.A.
• $375 million in financing
• Brazil-Uruguaiana Power Plant
• Mexico-Yucatán Gas Pipeline
• Nicaragua-Tipitapa Power Plant
• $40 million in IDB loans