Argentina
"With this agreement, we
are looking forward to gaining a significant portion of a market that has been dominated by Argentina in the
past."
It’s Bush vs. Chavez as 33 heads of state meet Friday for Summit of the Americas.
The talks on a future Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) have divided Latin American states into different interest groups prior to the 4th Summit of the Americas to be held in Argentina on Nov. 4-5.
"We think his policies are totally contrary to what we want for Latin America and are promoting genocide, domination of workers and their communities and the plundering of natural resources," said Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez, who is heading a protest "People’s Summit" coinciding with Bush’s visit Thursday through Saturday.
Another international arbitral tribunal has weighed in on the question as to whether “Most-Favored Nation” treatment offers foreign investors access to more favorable dispute resolution options found in other treaties.
Sovereign states are the original right bearers. They have to denounce bilateral investment treaties or their most arbitrary clauses following the procedures provided, in accordance with the legal principles of democratic constitutions; to recover their legislative and jurisdictional powers, by retrieving their inherent jurisdiction which had been delegated to international foreign tribunals, allowing them to rule on the general regulatory or contractual policies of independent nations.
The Argentine government said it will try to annul a ruling by the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in favour of US company CMS Energy Corp.
Scotiabank has filed a $600 million US compensation claim against Argentina, claiming that "discriminatory" actions taken by Argentine authorities led to the total loss of its investment in its Scotiabank Quilmes subsidiary in 2002.
Decision of ICSID Tribunal (July 17, 2003) in regard to objections to jurisdiction in CMS Gas Transmission Company vs The Republic of Argentina. CMS bases its claim against Argentina on a 1991 Argentina-US Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).
European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said Tuesday a new round of talks between the European Union and Mercosur in Buenos Aires will be crucial if the negotiations are to be concluded as planned by October.
Negotiations on a free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) have entered their decisive stage.
