Capacity Building for the Implementation and Administration of Free Trade Agreements: Implementing Service and Investment Provisions

This paper draws on the experience of Mexico in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and on the experiences of four Latin American countries in the implementation of their services and investment obligations in their FTAs with the United States: Chile (United States-Chile FTA), Costa Rica and El Salvador (Dominican Republic-Central America-United States FTA, or CAFTA-DR), and Peru (United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, or PTPA). The paper highlights the provisions of these agreements (investment, cross-border trade in services, financial services, and telecommunications), and then discusses the processes and results of their implementation, as well as the domestic political constraints.