Draft decree ratifying the third amendment to the 1953 Haiti-United States investment guarantees agreement

A draft decree ratifying the agreement that amends, for the third time, the investment guarantees agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Haiti, signed in Washington on 13 March and 2 April 1953, amended in Port-au-Prince on 7 and 14 October 1975 and again on 27 May and 6 September 1985. It is signed by Michel Joseph Martelly.

The preamble cites constitutional articles 136, 139, 159, 276, 276-1 and 276-2, the Charter of the United Nations of 26 June 1945, the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 18 April 1961 and the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.

An investment guarantees agreement lets a United States agency insure an American investor against expropriation, currency inconvertibility and political violence in the host country. For Haiti it is the treaty basis on which that cover is written, and its periodic amendment tracks changes in the United States programme, from the original 1953 instrument through the successor agency arrangements. Constitutional article 276-2 is the provision that gives a ratified international agreement force above ordinary law.