ISDS Case Map
El Salvador
Canadian company Pacific Rim can move forward under El Salvador law with a case against that country's government for blocking a gold mining project, but cannot file suit under a regional trade agreement, a World Bank arbitration panel ruled.
Tomorrow, the AFL-CIO will join the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and activists from a range of labor and environmental groups to converge on the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a noon protest in opposition to a CAFTA case being brought against the Salvadoran government by Pacific Rim.
The governments of Mexico and five Central American countries signed in El Salvador a free trade agreement (FTA) that unifies the existing ties in one body.
Pacific Rim is suing the Salvadoran government in an international investment court, one of scores of cases in recent years in which frustrated oil, gas and mining investors, using provisions of trade agreements, have sought to recoup losses from mostly developing countries.
Representatives of the governments of Mexico and the Central American countries wrapped up a fifth round of talks on a regional free trade agreement last week. The negotiations took place in Mexico City, with the next round of talks to be held in August in El Salvador.
Local activists protesting Obama's visit to El Salvador called for a renegotiation of CAFTA, an end to the US embargo against Cuba, a withdrawal of the US military from El Salvador, and a cessation of US support for the tainted Porfirio Lobos regime in neighboring Honduras.
Five years after the entry into force of CAFTA-DR, several international bodies declared this trade treaty made little or no contribution to El Salvadoran economy.
The government of El Salvador aims to concrete in 2011 trade agreements with Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, the European Union (EU) and the countries of the Pacific Rim.
In a decision with implications for the national sovereignty of member states under US trade pacts, a World Bank tribunal has approved a Canadian mining company's controversial lawsuit against the government of El Salvador.
The recent turmoil over the efforts of Pacific Rim, a Canadian corporation, to carry out a gold-mining project in El Salvador is a catalyst for reviving the deep-seated divisions that go back to the Central American country’s bloody civil war from 1980 to 1992.
