DECREE NO. 3,389, OF March 22, 2000.

Disposes on the execution of the Economic Supplementation Agreement No. 43, between the Governments of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Cuba.

THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, in the use of the attribution that confers it on art. 84, inciso IV, of the Constitution,

CONSIDERING that the Treaty of Montevideo of 1980, which created the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), firmed up by Brazil on August 12, 1980 and approved by the National Congress, by the Legislative Decree No. 66 of November 16, 1981, provides for the modality of Economic Supplementation Agreement;

CONSIDERING that the Plenipotentiaries of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Cuba, with basis in the Treaty of Montevideo of 1980, signed, on December 22, 1999, in Montevideo, the Economic Supplementation Agreement No. 43, between the Governments of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Cuba, which is aimed at matching the Agreement of Partial Scope No. 21, concluded on October 16, 1989, between the Governments of the two countries, to the condition of Cuba as a full member of the ALADI pursuant to resolution 51 of the Council of Ministers of ALADI;

DECRETA:

Art. 1º The Economic Supplementation Agreement No. 43, between the Governments of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Cuba, apensed by copy to the present Decree, will be executed and fulfilled as entirely as in it if contains.

Art. 2º This Decree enters into force on the date of its publication.

Brasilia, March 22, 2000; 179º of Independence and 112º of the Republic.

FERNANDO HENRIQUE CARDOSO

Luiz Felipe Lampréia

ECONOMIC SUPPLEMENTATION AGREEMENT NO. 43 CONCLUDED BETWEEN THE FEDERATIVE REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL AND THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA

The Plenipotentiaries of the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Cuba, duly authorized by their respective Governments, with powers presented in good and due form.

REAFFIRMING THE importance that opportunely the MERCOSUR and the Republic of Cuba initiate negotiations with a view to entering into a Partial Economic Complementation Agreement that regulate the relations between both Parties.

SUITS IN:

Celebrate a Supplementation Partial-Reach Agreement Economic, which shall be governed by the provisions contained in the Treaty of Montevideo 1980 and in Resolution 2 of the Council of Foreign Ministers of ALALC, in what correspond, and by the following standards:

CHAPTER I

Objective of the Agreement

Art. 1º-The present Agreement is aimed, in the context of the Treaty of Montevideo 1980, and as per the spirit of economic integration of Latin America, to promote exchanges commercial growing and balanced dynamically among the signatory countries and, taking into account their respective degrees of economic development, the establishment of concessions that allow to strengthen and streamline trade currents; the largest possible qualitative diversification of trade; and the analysis, as far as possible, of the special situation of some products of interest from both signatory countries.

CHAPTER II

Treatment to the import

Art. 2º-In Annexes I and II, which are part of this Agreement, the preferences, treatments and other conditions agreed upon by the signatory countries for the import of the negotiated products are registered, originating in their respective territories, classified and described in accordance with the Prevailing Nomenclature of the Association based on the Harmonized System of Designation and Coding of Goods (NALADI/SH), and registered the correlations with the the respective national customs tariffs.

The preferences referred to in the preceding paragraph consist of a percentage reduction of the recorded gravames in their respective customs tariffs for third party import Countries.

Art. 3º-The signatory countries will neither maintain nor introduce new non-tariff restrictions on the reciprocal trade of the products contained in this Agreement.

Art. 4º-Understand by? gravames? customs duties and any other charges of equivalent effect, whether of tax, monetary, currency or any nature, which focus on the imports. They are not understood in this concept the analogous fees and charges, when they correspond in the cost of the services provided.

Will you tend to? constraints? any measure of administrative, financial, currency, currency or any nature, upon which a signatory country prevents or hinders, by unilateral decision, its imports.

They are not understood in this concept as measures adopted by virtue of the situations provided for in Article 50 of the Treaty of Montevideo 1980.

CHAPTER III

Preservation of agreed preferences

Art. 5º-Os signatory countries commit themselves to keep the percentage preference agreed, whatever the level of the gravames they apply to the import of third countries.

The signatory countries undertake also not to apply to the import of the goods traded engraved goods of a legal nature separate from those of the customs tariff, except those which have been declared expressly on the date of subscription to this Agreement.

Art. 6º-The signatory country that modifies, in relation to a negotiated product, the level of gravames applied to the import of third countries, alpping the effectiveness of the agreed concession, will make consultations, at the request of the other signatory country, to re-establish the terms of the negotiation.

CHAPTER IV

Regime of origin

Art. 7º-The preferences will be applied exclusively to the originating and proceeding products of the signatory countries, of in accordance with the standards set out in Annex III to this Agreement.

These products should be amped up by the certificates of origin dispatted by the official authorities or authorized entities.

CHAPTER V

Safeguard clauses

Art. 8º-After fulfilling the first year of the present Agreement, the signatory countries will be able to unilaterally apply safeguard clauses to the import of the traded products, whenever imports occur that cause or threaten to cause serious injury to a productive activity of significant importance to their economies.

Art. 9º-The clauses of safeguard will have one year of duration, extended for a new consecutive annual period, applying to them the terms and conditions set out in the following articles.

Art. 10-The importing country's signatory country should communicate to the other country signatory to the Agreement, within the seventy-two hours of its adoption, the measures applied to the import of the negotiated products, informing you of the situation and the fundamentals that gave them origin.

Art. 11-Com the objective of not interrupting the trade currents that have been generated, the importing country's signatory country will establish a quota for the import of the safeguard object products, which will be governed by the preferences and too much conditions recorded in the corresponding Annexes.

That quota will be reviewed in negotiation with the other signatory country that is deemed to be affected, within the sixty days after received the communication referred to in the previous article.

Vencido this deadline, and whenever there has been no agreement for its application, the quota established by the importing country's signatory country will remain until the finalisation of the calendar year of the application of the safeguard clauses.

Art. 12-Whenever the importing country country considers it necessary to maintain the application of safeguard clauses for another year, as provided for in Article 9, it should initiate negotiations with the other signatory country, with the purpose of waking up the terms and conditions in which it will continue its application.

These negotiations will begin with sixty days of anticipation to the expiry of the original deadline of the application of the aforementioned safeguards clauses, having to conclude before their due.

Art. 13-Where there has been no agreement between the signatory countries in the negotiations referred to in the preceding article, the importing country may continue to apply the safeguard clauses for more than one year, committing to maintain the quota established by virtue of Article 11.

Art. 14-Case, by exhausting the maximum period referred to in Article 9 of this Agreement, subsist the causes that originated the application of safeguard clauses, the importing country's signatory country should initiate the procedures regarding the withdrawal of the agreed preferences, of compliance with the standards set for such effects in Chapter VI of this Agreement.

Art. 15-The signatory countries will be able to extend to the import of the products traded, transiently and in non-discriminatory form, the measures of general character that they have adopted for the purpose of correcting the imbalances of its balance of global payments, communicating its decision to the other signatory country with seventy and two hours of anticipation.

Within that time frame, the importing country's signatory country should start a consultation with the other signatory country, with the purpose of mitigating the effects that the imposition of such measures may have on the products negotiated by that country.

With the aim of facilitating the consultation referred to in para. previous, the importing country's signatory country should provide the other signatory country with a detailed description of the measures aimed at correcting the situation presented, as well as the elements of judgement allowing to check the imbalance of its balance sheet of global payments and the incidence that the import of the negotiated products may have on this imbalance.

Art. 16-The safeguard clauses adopted on balance sheet grounds of payments may have a year of duration, and may be extended by another year, upon consultation with the other signatory country, with the purpose of mitigating the effects that the adopted measures have had on the trade of the negotiated products.

Art. 17-A The application of the safeguard clauses provided for in this Chapter shall not affect the goods embarked on the date of their adoption.

CHAPTER VI

Withdrawn from grants

Art. 18-The signatory countries will be able to withdraw the preference they have heard for the import of the products traded in this Agreement, where they have complied with the prior requirement to apply safeguard clauses to those products, in the terms provided for in the previous Chapter in what to correspond.

Art. 19-The signatory country that resorting to the withdrawal referred to in the preceding Article shall initiate negotiations with the other signatory country affected within the thirty days counted from the minutes in which to communicate the withdrawal by diplomatic track.

Art. 20-The signatory country that resorts to withdrawal of a preference should outwarge, upon negotiation, a compensation that ensures the maintenance of a value equivalent to the commercial currents affected by the withdrawal.

There is no agreement regarding the compensation referred to in the preceding paragraph, the affected signatory country may remove concessions that benefit the importing country's signatory, equivalent to those that this has withdrawn.

CHAPTER VII

Differential treatments

Art. 21-The this Agreement, as regards the commitments made by the Federative Republic of Brazil, contemplates the principle of differential treatments, in the spirit of the established in the Treaty of Montevideo 1980 and in Resolution 2 of the Council of Ministers of ALALC's Foreign Relations.

That principle will also be taken into account in the modifications to be introduced in this Agreement, pursuant to Rule 22.

CHAPTER VIII

Revision of the Agreement

Art. 22-A From the entry into force of this Agreement, the signatory countries shall annually review the provisions and preferences heard in it, with the principal purpose of adopt measures aimed at incrementing the currents of their reciprocal trade in a balanced way.

Outrossim, at the request of one of the signatory countries, the other country will be able to confine the tweaks it estimates necessary for its best operating and development.

On the occasion of the revisions to which this article is concerned, the signatory countries will look at the non-tariff restrictions applied to the products included in this Agreement, with the purpose of negotiate their elimination or mitigation.

The modifications or adjustments that are to be introduced in this Agreement by virtue of the provisions of this article shall appear in Additional Protocols subscribed by Plenipotentiaries duly accredited by the Governments of the signatory countries.

CHAPTER IX

Accession

Art. 23-The present Agreement is abetting to the accession, upon prior negotiation, of the remaining member states of the Association.

Accession shall be formalized, once negotiated its terms between the signatory countries and the acceding country, upon the underwriting of an Additional Protocol to this Agreement, which shall enter into force thirty days after its deposit at the General Secretariat of the Association, provided that on that date all its signatories have incorporated it into their national legislation, or, failing that, on the first day of the month following the deposit of the instrument of ratification of the last signatory state fulfilling that formality.

CHAPTER X

Vigence

Art. 24-The present Agreement shall have a duration of 3 years and shall enter into force in 1º January 2000.

If they have not been complied with that date the internal procedures for incorporation provided for by the respective legislations for the putting into effect throughout the national territory, the present Agreement will enter into force on the date on which both signatory countries have incorporated it into their domestic law in accordance with their respective legislations.

The signatory countries shall communicate to the General Secretariat of the ALADI the fulfillment of those Trames.

The present Agreement shall be replaced by an Economic Supplementation Agreement between MERCOSUR and the Republic of Cuba, at the time that the latter enters into force.

CHAPTER XI

Administration of the Agreement

Art. 25-A administration of this Agreement shall be held by an Administrative Commission, which shall be integrated by the Federative Republic of Brazil, by the Ministry of Relations Exteriors and, by the Republic of Cuba, by the Ministry of Foreign Trade. The Administrative Commission shall meet periodically or by request of any of the Parties and shall have as assignments to consider measures that are necessary for the expansion of trade on dynamically balanced bases, and shall ensure good application and improvement of the provisions of this Agreement.

CHAPTER XII

Denpronunciation

Art. 26-The signatory country wishing to shut down from this Agreement shall communicate its decision to the other signatory country with ninety days of anticipation to the deposit, at the General Secretariat of the Association, of the respective instrument of denunciation.

Formalized the complaint, will automatically cease for the country denouncing the acquired rights and obligations incurred by virtue of that Agreement, except with respect to the treatments received or bestowing, for the importation of the traded products, which will continue in force for the period of one year, counted from the deposit of the respective instrument of denunciation, unless, at the opportunity of the complaint, the signatory countries agree on a different time.

CHAPTER XIII

Convergence

Art. 27-The Parties shall propel the convergence of this Agreement with other agreements of integration of Latin American countries, of conformity with the mechanisms established in the Treaty of Montevideo, 1980.

CHAPTER XIV

Final Provisions

Art. 28-This Agreement leaves without effect and replaces the Partial Reach Agreement No. 21, subscribed to the amparo of Article 25 of the Treaty of Montevideo 1980 between the Governments of Brazil and Cuba on October 16, 1989, as well as its Additional Protocols.

The General Secretariat of the Association shall be a depositary of this Agreement, of which it will send duly certified copies to the Signatory governments.

IN FÉ THAN, THE RESPECTIVE PLENIPOTENTIARIES subscribe to the present Agreement in the city of Montevideo, at the twenty-two days of the month of December one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine, in two copies originals, in the Portuguese and Spanish languages, being both texts being equally authentic.

By the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil:
	José Artur Denot Medeiros
By the Government of the Republic of Cuba:
	Miguel Martinez