ISDS Case Map
Latin America
Shifting world dynamics mean that a proposed overhaul of the US tariff preference system threatening to exclude Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela -- the three main countries currently driving trade within Latin America -- needs to be examined in a global context.
A deeply divided Latin America, in the midst of several growing conflicts, meets with the European Union 25 leaders in the framework of the two regions' fourth summit.
The Trade Treaty of the Peoples (TCP in Spanish) - proposed by President Evo Morales - is a response to the failure of the neo-liberal model, based as it is on deregulation, privatisation and the indiscriminate opening of markets.
South American nations will have to choose whether they want continental unity or individual trade agreements with the United States -- but not both, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday.
"Nobody who sat across the negotiating table from the United States came out of the talks feeling they got a fair deal," said Peter Hakim, president of the nonpartisan Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington. "And many feel they've been outright cheated."
COPA the Panamanian airline is now flying the Brazilian company Embraer's E-190 commercial airliners on routes previously dominated by Boeing 737s. This detail highlights broader shifts in the economic balance of power in Latin America away from United States corporations.
The European Union posted strong trade growth with Latin America last year, led by Venezuela and Mexico. But future EU relations with the region will depend on expanding free trade agreements.
The European Commission's objective is to ''establish an enhanced partnership through a network of association agreements (including free trade agreements) involving all the countries of the [Latin America and Caribbean] region and liable to contribute to the integration of the region as a whole.''
South Korea hopes to establish free trade agreements (FTAs) with other Latin American and Caribbean countries following one with Chile, Vice Finance and Economy Minister Kwon Tae-shin said Sunday.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) this week said the U.S. should drop partners in free trade agreement negotiations if talks on those agreements are not progressing.
