ISDS Case Map
Peru
Within days of taking office, Peruvian President Alan García named economist Hernando de Soto -- a man he calls ''the most prestigious Peruvian'' -- as his chief lobbyist to push a free trade agreement through the U.S. Congress.
At issue are commodities as varied as rice, apparel and automobiles, as well as lucrative new markets in banking and other financial services, with potentially billions of dollars in commerce at stake. But for several countries negotiating trade pacts with the US, the outcome may have less to do with economics than with American election-year politics.
Republican leaders in the US House of Representatives will likely delay a vote on a free trade pact with Peru until after the November 7 congressional election, US trade experts said on Wednesday.
Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said Thursday that his country and Peru are "90 percent" of the way to concluding a free trade agreement.
Major exporters from Colombia fear being blindsided by tariffs up to 20 percent on key exports to the United States unless special trade preferences designed to wean the Andean nations off of cocaine production are renewed before their expiration Jan. 1.
Little by little, South America is dividing itself into two very different trade blocks. Mercosur, based on Brazil and Argentina and recently joined by Venezuela, is relatively protectionist and suspicious of bilateral trade deals with the United States. Most countries on the Pacific seaboard are committed to free trade with both el norte and Asia.
Peruvian President Alan Garcia said his government will seek to renegotiate a free-trade agreement signed between Peru and the US which is awaiting a vote in the US Congress. "We need to think about a different accord, one for the poor, one that looks within, complying with a national agenda."
An issue that has received less attention is the implications of the FTA for the entry of genetically modified organisms (GMO's) into Peru.
The business community is off and running in its attempt to push the latest Latin American free-trade agreement through Congress.
Free-trade agreements generally set tariffs on beef and commodities and deal with government procurement contracts and labor provisions. But as US Congress prepares to vote on a contentious free-trade accord with Peru, the figure of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is looming large.
