ISDS Case Map
mining
Asia Pacific mining ministers wound up a talkfest in Perth today vowing to explore a free trade agreement between Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) members that would dwarf all other FTAs.
If ratified by Congress, the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which President Bush and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe signed in mid-November, could lead to more hydropower and mining projects in Colombia -- and more displacement and violence.
Trade with China is likely to become an increasingly politically sensitive issue for a number of countries on the continent. That is because China is essentially buying the continent's oil and minerals and selling back manufactured goods, a type of relationship redolent of a colonial one and similar to most of Africa's existing trade relations with Europe and the US.
Mining company Oxus Gold PLC said it is seeking an arbitration order to protect its investments in Kyrgyzstan, following the government-sponsored seizure of premises owned by Talas Gold Mining Co, Oxus' joint venture company at Jerooy. Oxus said that representatives of Jerooyaltyn, a recently created joint venture between Kyrgyzaltyn and Global G.o.l.d, and local police forcibly took possession of the building on Thursday in direct contravention of the UK-Kyrgyz Bilateral Investment Treaty and Kyrgyz law.
The South African government is trying to protect its citizens' rights in the face of Zimbabwean nationalisation moves.
CHINA is now in the World Trade Organisation and is negotiating free trade agreements. It wants to be a player in the game of world trade. Yet it does not understand the rules of that game. How else to explain Beijing's decision this week to control the price of exports of iron ore from Australia and Brazil? This is not permitted in the WTO world of multilateral trade.
If the proposed free-trade agreement between Australia and China can cut the long delays faced by Australian mining companies to get projects off the ground in China, it could give a major boost to Australian mining investments in China.
China and Chile, the world's largest copper consumer and supplier respectively, signed a memorandum of understanding to create a joint commission on mining, which paves the way for more Chinese miners to explore the lucrative mining market in the South American nation, said a visiting Chilean official.
