ISDS Case Map
ALBA
The Alba trade bloc, led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, agreed to create regional mining and agriculture businesses as the group concluded a second day of talks in Bolivia.
Although the crisis is indeed delegitimizing capitalism as an engine of “progress,” the weakening global economy is greatly complicating, if not weakening, efforts to advance ALBA as well as the Bank of the South.
Exiting ICSID and joining ALBA and UNASUR,along with the customs restrictions it applied on its CAN neighbours, are the recent measures that have been taken by the government of Ecuador to demonstrate that there is an alternative trade policy.
Zelaya joined the Venezuelan proposed ALBA, a fair trade alternative to Washington's now-defunct Free Trade Area of the Americas, but is no Chavez puppet, despite what the all-out PR war from Washington-based business groups claims
"I reiterate, we’re not negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union."
Venezuela and the countries of the Bolivarian Alternative to the Americas (ALBA) decided not to sign the final document of the Summit of the Americas held on April 17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago, saying it excluded Cuba and offered no viable solution to the current economic crisis.
At the World Social Forum taking place in Belem, Brasil, Latin American social movements held a dialogue on regional integration from a peoples' perspective, with the leaders of four South American progressive governments. Presidents Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Fernando Lugo (Paraguay), Evo Morales (Bolivia) and Rafael Correa (Ecuador), met with 1500 representatives of social movements to exchange about past and future collaboration around integration initiatives such as the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas (ALBA) as solutions to the global economic crisis.
The Summit of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and Petrocaribe, originally scheduled for the coming weekend in Caracas, has been postponed, sources from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry announced.
Ecuador's president has ruled out a separate free trade agreement with the European Union, outside of the Andean Community trade bloc, as Peru and Colombia are seeking. However, negotiators at the Foreign Ministry say that if it is necessary to seek a free trade deal separately from the rest of the bloc, they will do so.
Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, ALBA, announced on Wednesday it will create a common currency.
