ABSTRACT
Regional agreements could be a bridge to full liberalization, as both de Palacio and Jeanniot assert. Such agreements could be 'progressively extended', with the accelerated elimination of 'artificial barriers to access and entry to markets,' as well as lifting limits on transnational investment. \0 Indeed, inside a 'Community of Interests', States should not fear foreign investment liberalization in their national airlines, if all the measures taken are reciprocal measures agreed upon in the regional agreement. In this case, the traditional concerns regarding the ownership liberalization, such as traffic rights, national security, and economic security, do not seem as relevant, since the regional partners would be equal. Among all liberal regional agreements that have been negotiated so far,l1 two examples, dealing, inter alia, with the relaxation of the ownership rule, may be recalled. Among the EU Member States, for example, the traditional national ownership and control requirement was replaced by the concept of 'Community Carrier.'12 Carriers that meet the legally defined requirements enjoy Community status and can thus benefit from the advantages of Community legislation, e.g., the right of establishment throughout the Community and complete market access, including cabotage. The other agreement, signed on 1 May 2001, which deals with the ownership and control principle of designated airlines is the APEC Agreement: more than simply a regional agreement, the APEC Agreement is a plurilateral agreementY The Agreement retains the traditional requirement that an airline be 'effectively controlled' by nationals of the country, the government of which designates the
\0 Jeanniot, supra 2 at 2. 11 States from different regions of the world have implemented a regional Open-Skies policy, with a liberalization of the ownership and control restrictions as well as of the third, fourth and fifth freedom rights. For instance, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) States are in the negotiating process in order to implement such a policy, see K.J. Max, 'South African liberalisation makes progress' Flight Int'l (October 24, 2000) 4; as well, three regional agreements containing 'Community of Interest' provisions have been listed by ICAO (CARICOM, COMESA, ACAC) , see WTO, Note on Developments in the Air Transport sector Since the Conclusion of the Uruguay Round, Part Four. WTO Doc. SIC1W1163/Add.3 (2001) 25 [hereinafter WTO doc.2J. 12 The three Packages of the European Liberalization, see Part 1, Chap. 1, para. 1, above. 13 On 15 November 2000, the five partner States reached an agreement, called Multilateral Agreement on the Liberalization of International Air Transportation [Hereinafter APEC Agreement]; the Agreement contemplates that other countries may sign on and thus provides a potential foundation for a broad multilateral Open-Skies regime. It may be more appropriate to talk about a plurilateral agreement instead of regional agreement, as the APEC agreement is much broader than the Asia Pacific region; 'Latin American countriesparticularly the Central American countries, where the Group T ACA carriers are based - are likely candidates, [M. Gerchick as former DOT deputy assistant secretary] said, pointing to the Bush administration's focus on the Western Hemisphere and well as its commitment to effecting the Free Trade Area of the Americas as a strong reason for extending APEC to other regions', see 'APEC Multilateral Moves U.S. Toward Globalizing Pacts' Aviation Daily 344:22 (1 May 2(01) 3; N. Ionides, 'Five Sign Up to Asia-Pacific Multilateral Agreement' Airline Bus. (June 2(01) 34.
