ISDS Case Map
Ecuador
The visit of US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte to Ecuador has reconfirmed the government of Rafael Correa's rejection of negotiating a free trade agreement with Washington, reported Prensa Latina.
Ecuador's new leftist president has decided not to renew a bilateral investment treaty with the United States, the country's foreign minister said Monday, just days before a senior US official is due to visit.
When Bolivian President Evo Morales took office in January 2006, he pledged to follow through on his campaign pledge to increase Bolivians' share of revenues from their major source of foreign income, natural gas. International gas companies, however, threatened to sue. Previous Bolivian governments had signed a flurry of bilateral investment treaties that gave foreign investors the right to bypass domestic courts and file such lawsuits through international tribunals. Morales complained that these rules made him feel like a “prisoner” in the presidential palace.
Presidents including Ecuador's Rafael Correa, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Evo Morales are bypassing the US in reaching trade accords and strengthening diplomatic and commercial ties with nations that compete with, or are hostile toward, US interests.
When Ecuadorians went to the polls on Nov. 26 they collectively said no to neoliberalism as they voted overwhelmingly for maverick candidate Rafael Correa over billionaire banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa.
The Bush administration said Wednesday it will renegotiate the language covering labor rights in free trade agreements it has reached with Peru, Colombia and Panama, in order to get the deals approved by the new Democratic Congress. The three countries have already been notified.
Correa's government officially announced that Ecuador is not interested at the moment to negotiate a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US.
Ecuador will refrain from signing a free trade agreement with the United States and will not renew the agreement for use of Manta Air Base by the US military, confirmed President-Elect Rafael Correa Thursday.
The country is split over a possible permanent trade deal with the US.
Ecuador's President-elect Rafael Correa said Sunday that he will not sign a free trade agreement with the United States. "We don't have a national currency, we have the dollar," he told Radioprogramas. "If as a result of the agreement, Peru and Colombia have a problem in the external sector, they reduce the currency's value and correct the imbalance. Ecuador can't do that and the consequences could be incalculable."
