ISDS Case Map
Central America
Peru expects to launch FTA negotiations with Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatelama on November 8. The decision of El Salvador and Nicaragua will be rendered in a couple of days.
The texts as they were agreed to at the final negotiation round in Madrid on 16-18 May 2010, now going through legal scrubbing.
South Korea is seeking to boost its partnership with Panama, a small Central American country that has strong ties with the United States, politically and economically, and explore the possibility of signing free trade agreements with regional players with the nation's help.
Labor unions, human rights advocates and workers across both continents are opposing the new trade agreements at a time when Europe is struggling to rebound from the financial crisis, suddenly intensifed by the recent turmoil in Greece. The popular opposition to free trade could foreshadow similar conflicts in the United States, as several deals with Latin American countries are currently stalled in Congress.
The European Union on Wednesday signed agreements liberalizing trade with Central America, Peru and Colombia, while some Latin American leaders criticized such deals as only favouring rich countries.
Under the agreement, cars made by EU producers such as Volkswagen AG, Renault SA and Fiat SpA will be given increasing free access to the Central American market over 10 years. The governments also agreed on quotas for EU imports of 7,000 tons of boneless cuts of beef and 20,000 tons of rice, growing 5 percent annually, that constitute new trade.
Trade unions from Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union call for a halt to the ratification of the EU-Central America and EU-Colombia/Peru Free Trade Agreements (FTA) given the omission of key trade union demands and the lack of involvement of civil society and trade unions in the negotiations process.
Central American countries and the European Union have reached a free trade agreement in talks in the Spanish capital, an EU official told AFP on Tuesday.
The European Union is eager to sign free-trade agreements under the Spanish presidency between the EU and MERCOSUR, Central America and Peru and Colombia. Farmer’s organizations from both Latin American countries and Europe are united in their opposition to the talks.
A new accord designed to bolster political and economic ties between the European Union and Central America could result in greater seizures of medicines whenever pharmaceutical companies allege that their patents have been infringed, public health advocates have warned.
