ISDS Case Map
El Salvador
While the seeds dispute was an effective rallying point, social movements must confront the elephant in the room – CAFTA.
Pacific Rim Mining Corp., a Canadian-based multinational firm, sought to establish a massive gold mine using water-intensive cyanide ore processing in the basin of El Salvador’s largest river, Rio Lempa.
The controversy over government procurement of seeds in El Salvador is a clear example of how US free trade agreements with developing countries can undermine national development goals, as Oxfam warned during the negotiation and debate over CAFTA, writes Stephanie Burgos.
Washington and El Salvador moved closer to agreement on a $277 million U.S. aid package Tuesday after the Obama administration took steps to defuse a contentious trade dispute over a modest Salvadoran program to buy seeds for poor farmers.
The US State Department stands accused of conditioning development aid to El Salvador to benefit and boost foreign agribusiness in the Central American nation.
Last week more than 300 international and national civil society organizations wrote to the president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, during its biannual meeting in Washington, denouncing the bank’s involvement in the case of Pac Rim Cayman LLC v. El Salvador.
A multinational mining company has been accused of launching "a direct assault on democratic governance" by suing El Salvador for more than US$300m (£179m) in compensation, after the tiny Central American country refused to allow it to dig for gold amid growing opposition to the exploitation of its mineral wealth.
Activists are challenging rules that grant corporations the right to sue governments.
Peru's Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Magali Silva, said that Peru has started the first talks toward an eventual free trade agreement between Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, India, Indonesia, Turkey and Israel.
With the recent ratification by the Salvadorean members of the House of Representatives, the Association Agreement between Central America and the European Union (EU) will enter into effect on August 1st. The agreement has been strongly rejected by social organizations.
