The Western IslesBoard

This document solidifies that the free nations residing in the Four Passages sea zone, in the western parts of the North Mesder Sea, agree to allow the free movement of persons and commerce within the sea zone.

Member states that violate the terms of this agreement shall be subject to ejection from the treaty and no longer be privileged to its freedoms and protections as described in Article 8.

This document was signed and ratified; July 15th, 1996

Section 1:
-Citizens of nations that have signed the FCTA will be able to move freely between member states. Individuals are still subject to their home countries citizenship laws and jurisdictions. Any person not claimed as a citizen by one of the member states, is not protected by this treaty.
-It is the responsibility of each member state to inform other members states of the arrival of people from outside states, and it is the responsibility of each member state to pass laws requiring private transportation services to provide them with that information.
Section 2:
-Citizens who have an ID issued by a member state shall not require a passport to travel between member states. Passports will be required if traveling into or out of the Four Passages Sea Zone. In the case of an expired ID, a member state marked passport will be considered a fair form of ID.
-If the person has no valid ID or Passport, they may be subject to detention in a local government building until their identity can be confirmed. A person cannot be detained for more than 48 hours, but still may not be permitted free travel until proper identification can be provided. Temporary IDs can be issued for confirmed citizens.
-Individuals without identification are subject the the laws of the country in which they are currently. As such, punishment for any infractions is determined by the member state until such time as the identity can be confirmed. Detention can be indefinite in the case of no identification.

Section 3:
-Persons that have been considered flight risks, or potential threats to any one member state's national security is subject to free travel revocation and suspension of freedoms granted by the FCTA. Persons are subject to individual member states travel policies and restrictions. Such as disallowing firearms or food items from accompanying a private individual on their mode of transportation.
-Exceptions to members states travel restrictions can be awarded by government approval. This includes confirming the purchase of items in question and allowing them commercial access under the free movement of commerce. This does not apply to personal items smuggled or bought illegally. Items that are not confirmed by a member state shall be subject to confiscation until further notice.
-If the transportation of any personal items should be deemed unacceptable by a member state into their own borders, they can file an Item Denial Form. This form will allow the member state to detain the items for the duration of travel, and must be approved or denied by a vote of the FCTA board. If a form is approved, they item(s) will be withheld for the duration of travel, and returned on departure. If a form is denied, the items must be returned to the individual.
-A member state may exercise limited use of emergency seizures of property, should they have reason to suspect the illicit use of the items in question after return to the individual. Upon seizure, the member state must file an Item Seizure Form. This form is similar to an Item Denial Form, and must be approved by the FCTA board.

Section 1:
-Conduction of Federal, Private, Domestic and International trade shall not be hindered within the jurisdiction of the FCTA. The FCTA shall allow the free movement of commerce and goods the encourage development and growth in member states.

Section 2:
-Tariffs on trade shall not exceed x0.0025 the price of goods between member states. In addition, tariffs on agricultural and medical items are prohibited. This is to allow goods to flow freely between member states, and to allow food and medicine to be more accessible to citizens in the FCTA Zone. There shall be no tariffs on private commerce, nor the movement of privately owned goods.
-Goods being sold in member states are subject to the quality and standards of that state. If goods are made in one state and are being sold to another, but the latter has different standards than the manufacturer, then the receiving member state is permitted to induce modifications on products to make it legal to their standards. Aftermarket modifications are permitted should the government or private company approve the changes.
-Goods may be banned by the receiving nation should an agreement not be reached by the parties above.

Section 3:
-The free movement of goods shall only be impeded in cases of any national emergency, suspicious individual, or in the case of suspicious transactions. Free movement of commerce is also prohibited for those who have had their freedoms of the FCTA removed by their home nation. People prohibited from free movement of their person, are also prohibited from free movement of commerce.
-Member states are permitted to determine the legality of items within their own borders.
-Items must be approved by member states for travel if it is suspected it may violate sovereign travel laws. Items bought in one country to be transported to another may be classified as commerce or a personal item.

Section 1:
-In the case of no one currency being established among members of the FCTA; currency exchanges shall be conducted as normal.

Section 2:
-In the case of a single currency to be used by members of the FCTA; a single nation shall be selected to be the base for a currency. Then over the period of 5 years, the new currency shall be implemented to replace the older national currencies.

Section 3:
-In the case of new member states joining after a new currency has been adopted; a transitional period of 8 years will phase out their currency to the new unitary currency.

Section 1:
-Member states shall agree to a mutual extradition treaty, to extradite wanted criminals or suspects in an investigation. Any country can request an extradition, but any member state can refuse. Any individual that is wanted by one country, can be considered a criminal by other member states. A member state may then arrest and try that individual within their jurisdiction.
-Failure or refusal to rightly extradite individuals under this article will be subject to investigation under Article 8.

Section 2:
-Member states may request the aid of other signatories in the arrest of an individual. If a member state were to accept, the person of interest shall be extradited to the country that asked for assistance. Member states may also offer assistance in the capture of an individual.
-The use of military units is prohibited in the extradition process. Police or para-military shall be the only ones to extradite wanted persons. Military units shall only be permitted in the case of terrorists or high risk individuals such as politicians or leaders of rebellious factions.
-The FCTA board can regulate if a member or associate state is required to extradite individuals, or if a state has the authority to arrest and detain individuals. The ones who designate these individuals are the member states. If one state declares an individual a person of interest, it has a claim to request their extradition or to arrest them. Further actions will be overseen by the FCTA.

Section 1:
-Member states and associate states shall have a number of representatives to act on the board of the FCTA on their nations behalf. They shall be allowed to vote on new legislation, admission and ejection of states, and the next president of the FCTA.
- New representatives can be sent at any time from member and associate states, should their people or government elect another individual to the board. Representatives have no term limits.

Section 2:
-The board of representatives of the FCTA shall be elected by the government or people of each member and associate state.
-Each member state may have 2 representatives, appointed by the government.
-Each associate state is limited to 1 representative, appointed by the state.
-Should a representative die while on the board, or forcefully removed by their parent country, their parent country can hold an emergency election to replace the representative or wait until the next election cycle to elect them. In the meantime one of their fellow representatives can vote in their stead.
-A vacancy can only be allowed for no more than 90 days before that vote is rescinded. The vote remains such until such time as the vacancy is filled.

Section 3:
-The board is lead by a single president who serves a 3 year term as the head of the board. A single representative may be reelected as many times as they wish. If the president is removed from the board by their home country in an election, they may finish their term should the number of days left in their term equal 300 days.
-Should the president die while in office, or be forcefully removed by their parent country, then an emergency session is called to elect a new president.

Section 1:
-Any nation that resides within the four passages sea zone may apply for membership, even if they were not a member during the initial founding of the FCTA. The application process involves submitting a formal request to join which shall be reviewed by the current member states representatives on the FCTA board. A vote will commence in a period of 180 days after submission of an application. Perspective new member states must receive a 60% vote in favor to join.
- An applicant that receives the number of votes required will be admitted into the FCTA after a period of 120 days. This is to allow time to change laws and regulations to comply with FCTA standards.

Section 2:
-Should an application not receive the requisite number of votes, they may re-submit their application after a period of 550 days. A perspective member may re-apply as many times as they wish. Each new applicant may apply for a single recount if they believe the number of abstentions could change in the intervening 550 days. 50 days after a review request is submitted the board will reconvene and vote again. Should the review vote also fail, the applicant may no re-submit a review request.

Section 1:
-Nations that reside outside the Four Passages sea zone may apply for an associate status. The associate status will grant certain privileges but not the full guarantees of full member states.
-Associate state status can only be granted to nations that border the North Mesder, Mesder, South Mesder, Argean, and Amber Sea. Nations outside of these boundaries may be granted a special status by unanimous vote by the board of representatives.

Section 2:
-Prospective associate states must submit an application as described in Article 6., Section 1. However the approval votes needed are much more strict. A prospective associate must receive a 75% vote in favor to join. After approval the new associate will expect to receive new privileges after a period of 120 days.
-Should the vote fail, the applicant may resubmit their proposal after a period of 600 days. Each new applicant may apply for a single recount if they believe the number of abstentions could change in the intervening 600 days. 100 days after a review request is submitted the board will reconvene and vote again. Should the review vote also fail, the applicant may no re-submit a review request.

Section 3:
-If an applicant receives the required number of votes to join, then their new privileges and obligations are as follows

• Associate states shall be granted all freedoms under Article 1. excluding Section 1, Subsection 1.

• Associate states shall be granted all freedoms under Article 2. excluding Section 2.

• Associate states are required to follow all Obligations under Article 4.

• Associate states will receive only one vote in the admission of new associate states, and no votes in the admission of member states.
  

Section 1:
-Should any member or associate neglect their obligations, or violate the freedoms granted by the FCTA, shall be subject to immediate ejection after an investigation.
-Citizens of member and associate states can be subject to the revocation of their freedoms by their parent country, with concurrence of the FCTA Board by a majority vote.

Section 2:
-Violation of obligations and Freedoms are as follows:

• Failure to allow the lawful passage of persons granted freedoms under Article 1.

• Failure to prohibit the travel of flight risks and persons of interest between, into, or out of member and associate states.

• Failure to extradite persons of interest as described under Article 4.

• Taxing items that are exempt under Article 2.

  Section 3:
  -Member and associate states ejected from the FCTA are required to allow a period of 180 days to allow citizens of other states to be informed of the changes. During those 180 days, the FCTA obligations are still active to the ejected state. After the 180 days, all freedoms are rescinded.
  -Individuals who have had their freedoms revoked are subject to standard travel laws of individual nations.

  Section 4:
  -States that have been ejected from the FCTA can re-apply for status after a period of 5 years. In this process, the state in question must receive an 80% vote in favor of re-admittance. Should this fail, then the standard process of application may be followed.
  -Individuals who have had their freedoms revoked may re-aquire them after 4 years in the case of board revocation, or as their parent state sees fit to re-instate their freedoms.

  ---

  Member States:
  Domanania Signed 1996

  Associate States:
  Nhoor Joined Nov. 13th, 1996

The OOC thread can be found here. This is where we discuss retcons, applications to join and trade specifics.

The Regional Trade and Economic Agreement (RTEA) is an organisation that aims to cover the negotiation of agreements related to intra-regional trade in goods, trade in services, investment, economic and technical cooperation, intellectual property, competition, dispute settlement and other issues. It is an intergovernmental organisation that aims to regulate and facilitate international trade. It does not impose strict rules on tariffs or other laws regarding economic policies, merely encouraging and creating an open and organised platform to allow for the creation, moderation and changing of trade deals.

RTEA deals with regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to RTEA agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. Most of the issues that the RTEA focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations.

The RTEA's current Director-General is Alexandro Demendez, who leads a staff of over 600 people in Greyhelm, Altera. A trade facilitation agreement was agreed by all members on 7 December 2013, the first comprehensive agreement in the organization's history. On 23 January 2017, the amendment to the RTEA Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement marks the first time since the organization opened its doors in 1995 that RTEA accords have been amended, and this change should secure for developing countries a legal pathway to access affordable remedies under RTEA rules.

Rather than a close military union (like the MSTO) or the merging of multinational economics and political structures into one union (like the C.U.) - RTEA has much looser restrictions for its member nations; citing the enterprise of mutual trade, scientific endeavours and economic prosperity of its members as its joint goal.

History

With the Treaty of Lanercost (named after the city in which the deal was signed, Greyhelm in Alteran Republics) signed in 1953, the RTEA organisation was born. A later treaty, to be signed in 1961, would further ratify and expand upon the Treaty of Greyhelm.

The ideas behind RTEA originated in the early 1940s, as the nation of Alteran Republics continued to prosper and was eager to seek new international trading partners. The concept was put on hold during the duration of the Second Imperial War. Early concepts and moves to set up the organisation were made in early 1950 but were scrubbed after Alteran Republics began an ambitious bid to join MSTO in the same year. However, after a series of internal spats within the organisation and Alteran Republics's growing resentment of Miklania's handling of several situations, Alteran Republics officially ended its bid in December 1953. Even before leaving, the newly elected Strategos, Sum Liwei, asked for the RTEA concepts to be re-examined in the event of and the scrapping of the MSTO bid.

Several nations, including Ostehaar, began talks with regional nations for the opening and continued renewal of their trade and political agreements. Agreeing to this, the Prime Minister asked for the organisation to ratified and a delegation from Ostehaar was asked to be present at the signing of the treaty in Greyhelm.

Full membership for member nations became effective on 14 December 1953, with future members to be admitted and the treaty expanded upon in January 1955.

Members

RTEA is composed of several sovereign member states: Alteran Republics, Aizcona, Ostehaar and Wellsia. Dormill and Stiura, Michigonia and Noronica signed up to the treaty and became a full member in October 1963. Noronica was controversially expelled from the organisation from 1973 to 1991 due to their political ties and use of RTEA sponsored trade networks. in 1992, Altera and Osterhaar led a successful trade and political mission, aiming to reinstate Noronica in the aftermath of their civil war.

Cosie was one of the more recent members of the organisation, joining in 2018.

In 1953, the "capitalist trio" Liba Hangate, Hangate of Newa and Marubhumi Hangate could have joined the RTEA followed by Western Tamsaling Hangate in 1954 and New Forest Hangate in 1955. When Noronica is expelled from RTEA in 1973, the New Forest Hangate would withdraw their membership. A decade later in 1983, a "united" Athara Magarati Democratic Hangate would apply for membership of RTEA.

Directly subordinated to the Common Market Group, the Work Subgroups draw up the minutes of the decisions to be submitted for the consideration of the Council and conduct studies on specific RTEA concerns. Currently, the work subgroups are the following: commercial matters; customs matters; technical standards; tax and monetary policies relating to trade; land transport; sea transport; industrial and technology policies; agricultural policy; energy policy; coordination of macroeconomic policies - namely labour and education visas.

The meetings of the Work subgroups will be held quarterly, alternating in every member state, in alphabetical order, or at the Common Market Group Administrative Office. Activities will be carried out by the Work Subgroups in two stages: preparatory and conclusive. In the preparatory stage, the members of the Work Subgroups may request the participation of representatives from the private sector of each member state. The decision-making stage is reserved exclusively for official representatives of the member states. The delegations of representatives from the private sector in the preparatory stage of the Work Subgroup activities will have a maximum of three representatives for each member state directly involved in any of the stages of the production, distribution or consumption process for the products that fall within the scope of the subgroup's activities.

Part of the organisation's missions is to enable access to free-trade agreements - allowing member nations to trade freely without the need for tariffs or customs charges. Whilst RTEA encourages and enables individual nations to pursue their own individual free-trade agreements, the organisation runs its own voluntary group known as "Trade Without Borders" (TWB). RTEA members can voluntarily sign up to the TWB sub-group, which enables tariff-free access to markets within the TWB group.

Functions

Among the various functions of the RTEA, these are regarded by analysts as the most important:

• It oversees the implementation, administration and operation of the covered agreements.

• It provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes.
  

Additionally, it is RTEA's duty to review and propagate the national trade policies and to ensure the coherence and transparency of trade policies through surveillance in global economic policy-making. Another priority of the RTEA is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to RTEA rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training.

• The RTEA shall facilitate the implementation, administration and operation and further the objectives of this Agreement and the Multilateral Trade Agreements, and shall also provide the framework for the implementation, administration and operation of the multilateral Trade Agreements.

• The RTEA shall provide the forum for negotiations among its members concerning their multilateral trade relations in matters dealt with under the Agreement in the Annexes to this Agreement.

• The RTEA shall administer the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes.

• The RTEA shall administer Trade Policy Review Mechanism.

• to achieve greater coherence in global economic policymaking, the RTEA shall cooperate, as appropriate, with the Covonantian International Development Fund (CIDF) and its affiliated agencies.
  

The above five listings are the additional functions of the Regional Trade and Economic Agreement. As globalization proceeds in today's society, the necessity of an International Organization to manage the trading systems has been of vital importance. As the trade volume increases, issues such as protectionism, trade barriers, subsidies, violation of intellectual property arise due to the differences in the trading rules of every nation. The Regional Trade and Economic Agreement serve as the mediator between the nations when such problems arise. RTEA could be referred to as the product of globalization and also as one of the most important organizations in today's globalized society.

The RTEA is also a centre of economic research and analysis: regular assessments of the global trade picture in its annual publications and research reports on specific topics are produced by the organization.

Objectives and Charter Overview

The Regional Trade and Economic Agreement aims to promote:

1. Investment and Opportunities
We will strive to assist RTEA member countries in attracting high-quality investment and employment opportunities in their own nations and abroad, to create and promote a high-yielding economy.

2. Overseas Trade and Investment
We will aim to promote and expand inter-RTEA membership trade and investment to encourage a spirit of economic cooperation and shared prosperity.

3. Sustainable Growth and Responsible Capitalism
We will aim to help establish and promote the idea “conditions for growth” in RTEA member countries and work to improve economic governance, transparency and accountability.

4. Cooperative Development
We will continue to create economic and social prosperity by supporting the development of enterprise in member countries through capacity building, mentoring and enhanced access to domestic, regional and international markets.

5. Supporting the Private Sector
We will represent the views of the private sector to the RTEA members, its member Governments, multi-nation organisations and the wider international community.

6. Protecting and Respecting Regulations
Where possible, we will assist nations that break international laws and agreements relating to trade and intellectual rights to correct and amend their behaviour - as well as punish nations, who continue to flout and disrespect laws, through appropriate financial penalties.

Merito non pareret. | By merit, not birth.