Bilateral treaties are official agreements between two nations or international organizations that require ratification by governmental bodies. They can be complex and may take years to be approved. Examples include the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and the Camp David Accords. Bilateral free trade agreements are even more complex, often involving a bloc of nations negotiating with another bloc or nation.
A bilateral treaty is an official agreement between two nations, two international organizations, or a combination of the two. Similar to a contract, though more extensive, a bilateral agreement requires not only the assent of the signatory parties, but also ratification by the congressional, legal, or governmental bodies they represent. Many bilateral agreements later get stuck in national legislations and are not officially approved for years. Sometimes the ratification process can take so long that a better and more modern agreement is signed instead of the original.
An example of the complexity of finalizing bilateral agreements can be seen in the early Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I and SALT II) involving nuclear weapons agreements between the United States and the former Soviet Union. Negotiations on SALT I, which was later renamed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, were concluded in 1969, but the bilateral treaty was considered only an interim measure. A further bilateral SALT II treaty resulted in 1979. The United States later chose not to ratify SALT II when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and withdrew from the treaty entirely in 1986. The United States also withdrew from SALT I in 2002 when it expressed its intention to expand its anti-ballistic missile program beyond what is permitted by this bilateral treaty.
Another example of the complexity of a bilateral treaty is the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, initially negotiated and signed in 1978. A second accord, approved in 1979, was as much a bilateral trade agreement as anything else, requiring Israel to cede control of the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt along with all of its oil, tourism, land resources and Israeli settlements in the region. At the same time, the agreement was signed by both sides only with the guarantee of the United States pledging billions of dollars in various forms of aid to both countries for the foreseeable future. Although the Camp David Accords were underpinned by a national consensus in Israel, many Israelis felt they were not legitimate, as the Egyptian people were not granted the right to vote on it.
Bilateral free trade agreements are even more complex than the typical bilateral treaty between two nations. This is because a bilateral trade deal is often an agreement between a nation and a bloc of nations. There are many examples of this, such as China’s trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) made up of 10 countries located in Southeast Asia or the Caribbean Community’s bilateral trade agreement (CARICOM) with Cuba. Any common market, economic union such as the European Union, or monetary union can be considered a trading bloc that enters into negotiations with other blocs and nations in a bilateral contract or bilateral immunity agreement.
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