./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/C/N/115
G/C/4
21 February 2000
(00-0593)
Council for Trade in Services
Council for Trade in GoodsOriginal:  Spanish
NOTIFICATION PURSUANT TO ARTICLE XXI OF THE GATT 1994 AND
ARTICLE XIV BIS OF THE GATS
The following notification has been received from the delegation of Nicaragua.
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1. On 2 August 1986, Honduras and Colombia signed a Treaty on Maritime Delimitation in the
Caribbean Sea (Ramírez-López Treaty), which infringes the sovereign rights of Nicaragua in the
Caribbean Sea by seeking to impose limits unilaterally, illegally and arbitrarily through the reciprocal
recognition of their maximum claims for expans ion in the Caribbean Sea, to the detriment of
Nicaragua's territorial rights.  The Ramírez-López Treaty was not ratified by the legislative branches
of the parties.
2. Suddenly, in November 1999 the Honduran authorities announced that they intended to ratify
the Ramírez-López Treaty, a process that started wi th the approval of the Treaty by the Honduran
Congress on 30 November 1999, even though the Central American Court of Justice had issued a
decision providing for a precautionary measure in the form of suspension by Honduras of the
ratification procedure and subsequent steps to put the Treaty into force.  A few days later, the
Colombian Congress also approved the Treaty, thus crowning the pretensions of Honduras and
Colombia to encroach on more than 130 square kilometres of Nicaraguan territory.
3. Ratification of the Ramírez-López Treaty violates the sovereignty and political independence
of Nicaragua and creates serious international te nsion.  The immediate move ment of Honduran troops
to the Nicaraguan border and the despatch of Colombian warplanes to the area led Honduras and
Nicaragua to call for an emergency meeting of the Permanent Council of the OAS, and to the sending
of a special envoy of the OAS to the area.
4. Implementation of this Treaty creates a complex maritime situation which could give rise to
incidents having unforeseeable consequences that could jeopardize peace and stability in the region.
Accordingly, Nicaragua availed itself of the instruments provided by international law for upholding
security and sovereignty interests and filed an application against Honduras with the International
Court of Justice at The Hague.
5. In the light of the foregoing, and pursuant to Article XXI(b)(iii) of the GATT 1994 and
Article XIV bis, paragraph 1(b)(iii), of the GATS, Nicaragua was obliged to adopt a number of
measures, including the following:
(i) Law No. 325 introducing taxes on goods and services coming from and originating in
Honduras and Colombia, which imposes a 35 per cent levy on goods and servicesfrom those countries calculated on the basis of the sum of the c.i.f. value plus existing
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(ii) Ministerial Order No. 041-99 cancelling fishing licences for Honduran and
Colombian vessels on grounds of national security and to avoid unnecessary violence.
6. In adopting these measures, Nicaragua has duly taken into consideration the interests of third
parties, by refraining from interrupting international traffic through its territory or establishingadditional obstacles to trade.  It has also endeav oured to comply with its WTO tariff commitments by
setting the tax levied on Honduran and Colombian goods below the bound levels.
7. Accordingly, by virtue of the Decision of 30 November 1982 on Article XXI of the General
Agreement and Article XIV bis, paragraph 2, of the GATS, Nicaragua hereby notifies to the WTO
Secretariat, the Dispute Settlement Body and other concerned bodies the trade measures adopted
under Articles XXI of the GATT 1994 and Article XIV bis of the GATS which are fully justified in
the overall context and in the climate of serious international tension in the region.
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