    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 3 (Monday, January 25, 1993)]
    [Page 71]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Message to the Senate Transmitting the Argentina-United States
    Investment Treaty

     January 19, 1993

    To the Senate of the United States:

        With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to
    ratification, I transmit herewith the Treaty Between the United States
    of America and the Argentine Republic Concerning the Reciprocal
    Encouragement and Protection of Investment, with Protocol, signed at
    Washington on November 14, 1991; and an amendment to the Protocol
    effected by exchange of notes at Buenos Aires on August 24 and November
    6, 1992. I transmit also, for the information of the Senate, the report
    of the Department of State with respect to this treaty.
        This is the first bilateral investment treaty with a Latin American
    country to be transmitted to the Senate since the announcement of my
    Enterprise for the Americas Initiative in June 1990. The treaty is
    designed to protect U.S. investment and encourage private sector
    development in Argentina and to support the economic reforms taking
    place there. The treaty's standstill and roll-back of Argentina's trade-
    distorting performance requirements are precedent-setting steps in
    opening markets for U.S. exports. In this regard, as well as in its
    approach to dispute settlement, the treaty will serve as a model for our
    negotiations with other South American countries.
        The treaty is fully consistent with U.S. policy toward international
    investment. A specific tenet, reflected in this treaty, is that U.S.
    investment abroad and foreign investment in the United States should
    receive fair, equitable, and nondiscriminatory treatment. Under this
    treaty, the Parties also agree to international law standards for
    expropriation and expropriation compensation; free transfers of funds
    associated with investments; and the option of the investor to resolve
    disputes with the host government through international arbitration.
        I recommend that the Senate consider this treaty as soon as
    possible, and give its advice and consent to ratification of the treaty,
    with protocol, as amended, at an early date.
                                                       George Bush
    The White House,
    January 19, 1993.

    Note: This message was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on
    January 20.