ISDS Case Map
Uruguay
South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-Sik was to open three days of talks in Uruguay Tuesday to advance plans for a trade pact with the region and to hear pleas to end Seoul's ban on Uruguayan beef.
Uruguay's Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a constitutional challenge brought by tobacco giant Philip Morris that disputes the tiny South American country's anti-tobacco laws.
Uruguayan officials announced plans Thursday to take further steps to toughen controls on tobacco despite a pending legal battle with global cigarette powerhouse Philip Morris International.
Uruguay called on Brazil and Argentina to allow Mercosur junior members to reach unilateral trade agreements with third countries helping to boost the group’s dynamism.
A legal analysis of the challenge launched by Philip Morris International found the company to be both unjustified and unreasonable in its opposition to Uruguay's new tobacco packaging laws.
The move is certain to be closely watched by international lawyers and policymakers alike, as it will serve as an early test-case of the little-used intellectual property protections contained in BITs.
Uruguay’s new health legislation, expected to go into effect in March 2010, requires that 80 percent of each side of cigarette boxes be covered by graphic images of the possible detrimental health effects of smoking. Philip Morris argues that this limits the space for branding and thus infringes on its intellectual property rights.
Mercosur presidential summit next week in Brazil has on the table an agenda of several highly sensitive issues that could deepen the rift between senior members Argentina and Brazil and junior members Paraguay and Uruguay, according to Uruguayan parliamentary sources.
As was anticipated Mercosur senior members Argentina and Brazil proposed Friday an increase of the common external tariff, (AEC) for certain products, and as was expected junior members Uruguay and Paraguay rejected the idea.
MERCOSUR "is barely surviving or far from the expectations for which it was created," said Uruguayan Foreign Minister, Gonzalo Fernandez, in declarations today to the weekly magazine Busqueda.
