ISDS Case Map
Bolivia
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a 10-month extension of a trade program aimed at promoting imports from four Andean nations and thus discouraging the cultivation and production of illegal drugs.
More than 800 citizens groups from 59 countries on every continent presented a petition on Tuesday, January 15 to World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, expressing concerns about the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), whose Administrative Council Mr. Zoellick chairs.
Choquehuanca's trip has the purpose of open better markets that go beyond the Free Trade Agreement signed with Mexico ten years ago.
The Bolivian Deputy Minister of Economic Relations and Foreign Trade Pablo Guzman said that his country will demand sovereignty of natural resources, public services and intellectual property in its negotiations with the European Union.
Bolivia joined the ALBA-TCP pact in 2006, and the government has earmarked $1.5 million for quinoa growers out of the $100 million provided by Chávez for investments benefiting small farmers. This will include credit for at least five quinoa-related projects in the southern altiplano.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved an eight-month extension of long-standing trade benefits for Andean countries, potentially setting the stage for approval of a free trade pact with Peru and a contentious debate on a deal with Colombia.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote today on a plan to extend trade preferences for Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia for eight months.
The Bolivian government is committing “commercial suicide,” said the Bolivian chamber of exporters, saying it was “one of the most unfortunate steps in the recent history of integration.” Yet all the Bolivian Government had done was explain that, in negotiations for an Association Agreement with the European Union, it was not prepared to negotiate away State control on issues of intellectual property, state purchases or procurement, international arbitration of investments and public services.
After one year of the TCP, a preliminary study done by CIPCA Santa Cruz shows that 108 million tonnes of Bolivian soybean have been sold at the preferential price of US$217 per tonne. The going market price is US$160 per tonne. This means that a net benefit of US$57 million has been generated through the programme as an alternative to the conventional market.
Bolivia's willingness to bend its anti-globalization stance allowed Andean leaders work out a common stand on a trade deal with the European Union at a summit here Thursday.
