ISDS Case Map
Colombia
Detractors of the Free Trade Agreement Marched Thursday throughout the main Colombian cities urging for a referendum to sanction or disapprove the signing of the accords.
Colombia will suffer the same fate with either the FTAA or the [US] FTA, since it is clear that it is the same policy initiated in 1990, but elevated to the nth power.
Barring major turns, any deal emerging from the talks will be a disaster for most Colombians.
On May 18, 2004, trade representatives from the United States and the Andean region met in Cartagena, Colombia to begin negotiations for a new set of bilateral trade agreements known collectively as the Andean Free Trade Agreement.
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.
The United States is prepared to drop Ecuador and Peru from a proposed U.S. free- trade pact with the Andean region if investment disputes with those countries threaten a deal with Colombia, a top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.
A tandem bicycle with a loudspeaker moves back and forth from one end of the massive indigenous protest march to the other, as the 50,000 demonstrators make their way along the Pan-American highway to the city of Cali in southwestern Colombia.
Citing possible harmful effects on the poor, Latin American bishops pledged to help grass-roots groups have an effective voice in free trade agreements being promoted in the Western Hemisphere.
The Colombian Germán Velásquez says that it was unfair for the US to veto the Argentine advisor Carlos Correa. He claims that poor countries must continue to have access to cheap medicines even if there are trade treaties. His request is that the Doha agreement is respected.
"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."
