ISDS Case Map
Venezuela
Bush is now presenting the FTA to Congress as the main US policy tool to halt the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
The Commission of the Constitution and Justice (CCJ) of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies approved the entrance of Venezuela to the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR).
The Brazilian Lower House Constitution and Justice Committee passed on Wednesday a motion for the long awaited incorporation of Venezuela to the South American trade block, Mercosur. However Venezuelan membership still faces a full debate in the House and must convince the Brazilian Senate.
The Bush administration has enlisted an unlikely ally in its international trade agenda: Hugo Chávez, the leftist president of Venezuela, who makes a practice of denouncing United States' influence in Latin America.
Cuba and Venezuela signed a raft of economic accords on Monday aimed at furthering cooperation under the Bolivian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), including plans for nickel and oil development and a billion-dollar petrochemical complex in Cuba.
President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Venezuela may return to the Andean Community, or CAN, because leftist leaders in Bolivia and Ecuador who have resisted free trade deals with the United States could help to transform the regional trade bloc.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte warned Tuesday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez would win and Latin American democracies would lose if the US Congress does not pass the Free Trade Agreements with Peru, Panama and "especially with Colombia."
Political and economic alliances with a view to strengthening Latin American integration are subtly shifting with a growing distance between Chávez and Lula
Above and beyond the political rhetoric in favour of South American integration, Mercosur and Venezuela have not eliminated their mutual suspicions, which are delaying Venezuela's admission to the trade bloc as the fifth full member
As Prime Minister Stephen Harper departs upon his first official visit to Latin America this weekend, he will likely make a better impression than did Pierre Trudeau on his own visit to South America.
