ISDS Case Map
Bolivia
President Evo Morales vowed never to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the United States -- then lunched Thursday with the US ambassador and said he wanted to meet with President George W Bush on “fair trade.''
Bolivian President Evo Morales used his inaugural address Sunday to renew his pledge to nationalize the country's vast natural gas reserves, but said he's open to the idea of a large US-sponsored trade zone he harshly criticized last year during his campaign.
Backing away from his tough campaign talk against US-sponsored trade initiatives, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales said Friday he no longer rules out a free-trade deal with the United States and three other Andean nations. But he did not say he supported such a deal, either.
San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp. has dropped a $25 million dispute against the Bolivian government for canceling a water contract, after major street demonstrations forced a Bechtel-owned subsidiary to withdraw from Bolivia's third-largest city.
The decisive numbers of Evo Morales' election victory in South America's poorest country give him the legitimacy he needs to redistribute Bolivia's wealth in favor of the impoverished and excluded majority. But he faces enormous pressure from foreign corporations and international financial institutions to continue promoting superficial economic growth for the benefit of a small elite.
One crucial element common to all these bilateral trade talks is the ruthless determination of rich countries to destroy poorer countries' national sovereignty.
Bolivia faces an impending lawsuit for cancelling the water contract with Aguas del Illimani, the private consortium controlled by majority shareholder Suez. Thanks to a bilateral investment treaty signed between France and Bolivia, Suez has the right to sue the Bolivian government for breach of contract.
Under the Andean pact, dozens of Bolivian products enter the United States duty-free. That pact expires at the end of 2006. The United States now wants Bolivia to agree to a quite different kind of deal, one that would open exporters like furniture and leather-goods makers to American investment. It would also fly in the face of efforts by the Bolivian left to enact a stringent law that would expand state control over the oil and gas industry.
Bolivian parliamentary leader Santos Ramirez regarded US pressure against an oil project and for reasserting of an immunity agreement for US military troops as blackmail.
The entry into force of a U.S. free-trade agreement with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru will open important markets for the United States, bolster the economies and counternarcotics efforts in the Andean nations, and should be concluded in a timely fashion, says Deputy U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Peter Allgeier.
