ISDS Case Map
Andean countries
On July 3-9, 2005, a bipartisan delegation of Members of the Committee on
Ways and Means of the US House of Representatives traveled to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru regarding the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement with
the countries and to discuss investment and security issues in the region.
Instead of heeding the wave of social opposition, the United States has dug into its trenches, and in economic policy those trenches are the bilateral trade agreements.
Colombia and Peru say 85 percent of the FTA is already negotiated, but representatives from Andean agricultural unions say the other 15 percent is more important. The US ultimatum states the FTA should be signed at the latest on November 20.
Colombia's government on Friday praised the latest round of talks on establishing a free trade area that would also include the US, Ecuador and Peru, saying a final deal could be reached by November.
Speculation is that negotiations for a US-Andean FTA are nearing completion. House Ag Committee ranking member Collin Peterson of Minnesota says Administration officials may be making similar mistakes to those made in CAFTA.
An Economist Intelligence Unit briefing paper
Trade negotiators and officials in Colombia, where the 12th round of negotiations of a free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia, Peru and Ecuador is taking place Monday through Friday, say the talks are moving ahead smoothly.
The United States began a new round of negotiations Monday with Peru, Ecuador and Colombia for a proposed free-trade agreement aimed at giving the three South American nations tariff-free access to US markets.
Barely a month after Congress bypassed labor and environmentalists concerns to pass a free-trade agreement with several Central American nations, a proposal to expand tariff-free-trade zones among the Americas appears headed for ratification, prompting a new round of criticisms and concerns from a handful of human rights and international labor organizations.
Letter from five US NGOs to the USTR advocating that patents on plants and animals be dropped from the FTA negotiations with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, in favour of the current WTO TRIPS Agreement.
