ISDS Case Map
Ecuador
When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis.
Ecuador's president has ruled out a separate free trade agreement with the European Union, outside of the Andean Community trade bloc, as Peru and Colombia are seeking. However, negotiators at the Foreign Ministry say that if it is necessary to seek a free trade deal separately from the rest of the bloc, they will do so.
Ecuador wants to negotiate a trade deal with the European Union, reversing its preference for group talks a day after neighboring Colombia and Peru abandoned efforts at a regional partnership in favor of their own deals with the European bloc.
Ecuador's new constitution provides that Ecuador will not enter into international agreements under which Ecuador would have to cede jurisdiction to international arbitral tribunals in contractual or commercial matters between the State and individuals or corporations.
Ecuador would agree with Peru and Colombia to negotiate a bilateral Association Agreement between the Andean Community (CAN) and the European Union (EU), stated Thursday Peru's minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Mercedes Aráoz.
A panel from the World Bank's International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or Icsid, said late Tuesday that it has jurisdiction for the claim of the US-based oil company Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) against Ecuador.
Chevron is being accused of promoting geopolitical blackmail in its efforts to stave off a lawsuit accusing it of contaminating the Ecuadorian rain forest. Nearly 30,000 Amazon residents are seeking $12 billion from Chevron for dumping billions of gallons of toxic oil waste. According to Newsweek, the oil giant is urging the Bush administration to yank special trade preferences for Ecuador if the country's government doesn't force the Amazon residents to drop the case.
Recent remarks by Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on the civil war in Colombia and Ecuador's decision not to join the Alternativa Bolivariana de las Americas (ALBA) solidarity based cooperation initiative shows progressive leaders are taking stock on Latin American integration.
The government of Ecuador recently announced plans to withdraw from at least nine bilateral investment treaties, a move that follows the country's partial withdrawal last October from the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and comes amid growing discontent among some South American governments with the system for international investment protection. What's wrong with the system?
President George W. Bush urged U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to put aside differences over a free trade agreement with Colombia and approve the pact to show support for a strong U.S. ally at the center of a crisis in Latin America.
