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Bolivia


Bolivia intent on commercial suicide?
The Bolivian government is committing “commercial suicide,” said the Bolivian chamber of exporters, saying it was “one of the most unfortunate steps in the recent history of integration.” Yet all the Bolivian Government had done was explain that, in negotiations for an Association Agreement with the European Union, it was not prepared to negotiate away State control on issues of intellectual property, state purchases or procurement, international arbitration of investments and public services.
The TCP and small soy producers of Santa Cruz
After one year of the TCP, a preliminary study done by CIPCA Santa Cruz shows that 108 million tonnes of Bolivian soybean have been sold at the preferential price of US$217 per tonne. The going market price is US$160 per tonne. This means that a net benefit of US$57 million has been generated through the programme as an alternative to the conventional market.
Bolivia offers compromise at trade summit
Bolivia’s willingness to bend its anti-globalization stance allowed Andean leaders work out a common stand on a trade deal with the European Union at a summit here Thursday.
First meeting of ALBA ministers concludes in Venezuela
The countries that make up the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) trade block met in Venezuela this Wednesday for a meeting of the ALBA Ministers. The meeting set forth some of the future integration projects, the organizational structure, and the countries agreed on the formation of an ALBA development bank.
Bolivia notifies World Bank of withdrawal from ICSID, pursues BIT revisions
Investment Treaty News has learned that Bolivia has sent a formal notice to the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) declaring its withdrawal from the ICSID convention.
Cuba hosts anti-FTA meeting
The sixth Hemispheric Meeting to Fight Free Trade Agreements and for integration of the peoples began sessions at Havana Convention Center on Thursday.
Foreign investors gone wild
When Bolivian President Evo Morales took office in January 2006, he pledged to follow through on his campaign pledge to increase Bolivians’ share of revenues from their major source of foreign income, natural gas. International gas companies, however, threatened to sue. Previous Bolivian governments had signed a flurry of bilateral investment treaties that gave foreign investors the right to bypass domestic courts and file such lawsuits through international tribunals. Morales complained that these rules made him feel like a “prisoner” in the presidential palace.
Latin leftists mull quitting World Bank arbitrator
Bolivia and Venezuela, both nationalizing huge swathes of their economies, should quit a World Bank body that arbitrates between foreign investors and states, Bolivia’s president said on Sunday.
Chavez, Morales, Correa bypass US in deals with Iran, China
Presidents including Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales are bypassing the US in reaching trade accords and strengthening diplomatic and commercial ties with nations that compete with, or are hostile toward, US interests.
Bolivia Social Forum to condemn FTA
The Social Summit for the People’s Integration, to be held in December in Cochabamba, will condemn Washington-encouraged free trade agreements, members of the organizing committee informed.
Evo Morales rejects US-boosted FTAs
Bolivian President Evo Morales rejected on Monday the free trade agreements the United States is trying to impose on the regional nations, considering them overwhelming for small economies, and counterpoised the Trade Agreement with the Peoples.
Proposals to protect the constitution from neoliberalism
In the last 14 months, the Bolivarian Movement of Struggle against the FTA and FTAA and its successor, the Bolivarian Movement for the Sovereignty and Integration of People, have been preparing a proposal for a debate in the Constituent Assembly which was set up the 6th of August in Sucre. It is not a legal document but a platform of minimal principles to contribute to the debate.
Bolivian Government guidelines for a fair trade and cooperation treaty with the US
Bolivian Government outlines the principles which it feels are essential for achieving a just trade and cooperation treaty with the US.
Pisco sour
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.
Latin America Now: An Interview with Raúl Zibechi
In this interview, Raúl Zibechi discusses the challenges of the Evo Morales administration in Bolivia, the power and role of Bolivian social movements, projects for regional integration such as People’s Trade Agreement and the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the region’s new situation after the electoral victories of various "progressive" governments.
Bolivia advocates alternative vision for trade and integration
A cornerstone of Bolivia’s new economy is the People’s Trade Agreement (PTA, or TCP in Spanish), a progressive international trade and integration strategy. Based upon traditional indigenous principles of cooperation, complementarity and solidarity, the PTA is a form of collaboration between nations or communities that reasserts public control over the economy and attempts to recast the role of the corporation from that of "master" to "partner" in a process of sustainable development.
Bolivia changes mind on US trade deal
The government of President Evo Morales said Friday it hopes to negotiate a free trade agreement with the U.S., a policy turnaround apparently influenced by pressure from business groups.
Will recent nationalisations in Bolivia give rise to claims under political risk insurance policies?
It may be advantageous for foreign investors to pursue a claim under a Political Risk insurance policy and allow the insurers to recover subsequently under any applicable investment treaty by way of subrogation.
Andean Community: Grasping at unity straws
The foreign ministers of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) forged ahead in attempts to quiet fears of an imminent collapse of the bloc following Venezuela’s withdrawal, despite member-country political differences that were all too evident at the regional summit.
Trade treaties and challenging US hegemony in the Americas
Venezuela’s president Hugo Chávez, Brazil’s president Lula Inacio da Silva, and Nestor Kirchner, president of Argentina, met in Sao Paulo, Brazil on April 26 to discuss possibilities for integration and collaboration. On April 29, Cuba’s president Fidel Castro met with Chávez and newly elected Bolivian president Evo Morales to sign a People Trade Agreement (TPC), which is seen as a step towards the alternative trade agreement being proposed by Chávez, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).