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  1. Negotiations

US-Andean countries


In May 2004, the US began negotiations with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to reach some form of FTA with the three Andean countries -- and later, if US plans worked out, Bolivia as well.

According to

Colombia: 50,000 Indigenous People march for basic rights
19-Sep-2004     IPS
A tandem bicycle with a loudspeaker moves back and forth from one end of the massive indigenous protest march to the other, as the 50,000 demonstrators make their way along the Pan-American highway to the city of Cali in southwestern Colombia.
FTA With Andean Nations Needs Mechanism to Resolve Investor-State Disputes
16-Sep-2004    
The free trade agreement the United States plans to negotiate with the Andean countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru should contain an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, witnesses at a Trade Policy Staff Committee hearing on the Andean FTA said March 17.
Ecuador decides: Faced with free trade, free determination of its people
16-Sep-2004     Bolpress
The free trade treaty that the US proposed to Ecuador and other countries in the Continent following the failure of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAAs) and the World Trade Organization negotiations, is not exclusively a trade treaty; it addresses all facets of the economic, political and cultural life of our peoples.
A hundred social organizations sign a manifesto against the Andean FTA
8-Sep-2004     Bol Press
It is not appropriate for the country to sign an FTA with the US because this would result in the State having less control over reviewing transnational corporations and promoting and consolidating privatization.
Farm tariffs, IPRs seen as main obstacles to US-Andean FTA
27-Aug-2004    
Tariffs on agricultural products and definitions of intellectual property rights, particularly for pharmaceuticals, are shaping up as the most contentious issues in the free trade negotiations between the United States and three Andean nations, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
Intellectual Property: We must not make any concession on medicines
24-Aug-2004    
The Colombian Germán Velásquez says that it was unfair for the US to veto the Argentine advisor Carlos Correa. He claims that poor countries must continue to have access to cheap medicines even if there are trade treaties. His request is that the Doha agreement is respected.
Andean Nations Bet on Bio-Trade
11-Aug-2004     Andean Nations Bet on Bio-Trade
"One of the key aspects of the free trade agreement that the United States is negotiating with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru refers to access to the biological wealth of the three South American nations."
UN human rights expert urges Peru, US to protect health in any trade deal
13-Jul-2004     UN human rights expert urges Peru, US to protect health in any trade deal
As the United States and Peru negotiate a bilateral trade pact, a United Nations human rights expert has urged them to ensure any agreement includes public health safeguards so that essential drugs do not become unaffordable for millions of Peruvians.
Peru: Legislation to protect biodiversity restricts patents
7-Jul-2004    
The Peruvian Congress has passed legislation to protect the country's biodiversity by restricting patents on biological resources.
US-Colombia: FTA without biopiracy?
21-Jun-2004    
Biopiracy could be a sticking point in the free trade negotiations that the United States is pursuing with three of the countries with greatest biodiversity in the world: Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.