ISDS Case Map
biodiversity | biopiracy
On 4-8 April 2005, negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Thai and the US will take place in Pattaya. Following two previous rounds in Hawaii, the US is expected to submit demands on remaining issues, the most important of which is the issue of patents. This is a sign-on statement to call on the Thai government to halt the third round of negotiations in order to conduct a through review of the outstanding points and the negotiating position towards the FTA.
Examines how bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements which contain specific investment provisions reflect geopolitical concerns and redefine rights and privileges for transnational corporations, including with respect to commercial control over biodiversity through intellectual property rights.
We are enclosing a letter in English and Spanish proposed by different Central American and USA organizations to be delivered in our respective Congresses. We are protesting the contents and consecuences that the US-DR-CAFTA will bring in general to the society and the environment, but especially in this case Chapter No. 17 related to environment.
Washington's refusal to recognise the right of Andean countries to demand compensation for the commercial use of their biological resources is standing in the way of negotiations for free trade between the United States, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The graffiti on the walls in Quito ask if the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that the US is pushing on Colombia, Peru and Ecuador means that our days are numbered.
Access to genetic resources in South America's Andean region, which holds a quarter of the planet's biodiversity, is a point of discord in the free trade agreement that the United States has been negotiating with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru since May.
A call for organizational sign-ons from the Central America is Not For Sale Coalition
Tariffs on agricultural products and definitions of intellectual property rights, particularly for pharmaceuticals, are shaping up as the most contentious issues in the free trade negotiations between the United States and three Andean nations, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
"One of the key aspects of the free trade agreement that the United States is negotiating with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru refers to access to the biological wealth of the three South American nations."
Developing countries have entered into a large number of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) as well as free trade agreements (FTAs) that include explicit obligations for the protection of intellectual property rights as "investments".
