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Uruguay


In snub to US push for new services pact, Uruguay pulls out of negotiations
Just a week before the deadline for submitting national offers on liberalisation of services sectors under the on-going “secret” talks for a Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez decided to abandon the plurilateral negotiations.
Uruguay withdraws from TiSA, strikes a symbolic blow against the trade deal ratchet
TISA completes the unholy trinity of global trade agreements that also includes TPP and TAFTA/TTIP. Between the three of them, they sew up just about every aspect of trade in both goods and services — the latter being TISA’s particular focus.
Uruguay: governing coalition rejects TISA’s negotiations
The ruling progressivist coalition Broad Front overwhelmingly decided to withdraw Uruguay from the negotiations on the supra-national trade-deal TISA (Trade in Services Agreement).
The position of REDES – AT Uruguay on the recent ICSID decision
Devastating news for Uruguay and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
Vazquez and Rousseff meeting will address Mercosur/EU trade negotiations
Uruguay and Brazil presidents, scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting next 21 May in Brasilia will be addressing Mercosur issues, and advancing in the proposal that will allow the group’s members to sign bilateral agreements with third parties not belonging to the region, thus avoiding the ’consensus’ clause clamp.
Big Tobacco puts Uruguay on trial
Uruguay files its defence against Philip Morris, a test case for big business lawsuits that could hit the EU through the transatlantic trade and investment deal with the US.
The international implications of the Philip Morris branding battle in Uruguay
Long-running litigation between Uruguay, which has some of the toughest anti-smoking laws in the world, and cigarette giant Philip Morris could have direct consequences for plain packaging legislation globally. Could it also pave the way for legal action in Europe?
A conversation with Uruguay’s extraordinary José Mujica
Mujica reported that the Obama administration was not particularly interested in being dragged into the lawsuit Montevideo is currently embroiled in with Philip Morris, a Swiss tobacco company.
Uruguay’s smoking laws draw tobacco fire
While Uruguay has been celebrated by liberals around the world for its bold steps to regulate cannabis, with new rules taking effect this week, its similarly pioneering attempts to control smoking of another, legal plant – tobacco – has earned it powerful enemies.
Inversiones, transnacionales y desarrollo: el caso de Uruguay
El contexto actual, pasados ocho años de gobierno del Frente Amplio en Uruguay, es particularmente propicio para reflexionar acerca de las diversas condicionantes para la aplicación de estrategias de desarrollo económico, productivo y social.
Uruguay calls on Mercosur to sign a free trade agreement with United States
Uruguayan Vice-President Danilo Astori said Mercosur must decisively address the signing of a free trade agreement with the United States, but also admits that “opportunities must be built”.
Philip Morris International welcomes decision by World Bank tribunal to hear treaty challenge to Uruguay’s excessive tobacco measures
Philip Morris International (PMI) welcomed the decision by a World Bank arbitration tribunal to hear a claim that Uruguay violated multiple provisions of its Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with Switzerland.
PMI awaits jurisdiction ruling in Uruguay bilateral investment treaty litigation
Philip Morris International expects a decision to be made this month or next on a challenge by Uruguay as to whether an international tribunal set to hear bilateral investment treaty complaints has jurisdiction over the matter.
Hearings to start in Uruguay anti-smoking
Uruguay faces its first hearings in the French capital this week in a lawsuit filed by US tobacco giant Philip Morris International against its anti-smoking laws, an official said on Monday.
Hazards in Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs): Investors’ rights v. public health
Developing countries that have signed BITs should start a process of review and eventual renegotiation or denunciation, writes Carlos Correa
Mercosur is not moving but Uruguay “will not stay put licking its wounds”
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica said that Mercosur “is not moving forward or backwards” but is certainly working much better than the European Union where old experienced nations “made a mess of it”. Nevertheless, Uruguay will not stay put “licking its wounds”, it will look for other trade links.
Philip Morris v. Uruguay on cigarette branding: Will investor-state arbitration send restrictions on tobacco marketing up in smoke?
Philip Morris asserts that fair and equitable treatment includes a right to a “stable and predictable regulatory framework” as well as rights under treaties in addition to customary international law.
Philip Morris takes Uruguay to international court because of tobacco-ban policy
One of the world’s biggest tobacco companies is launching a claim against Uruguay for considering the country’s legislation commercially damaging to the company. Philip Morris corporation has filed a claim at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), a World Bank branch.
Uruguay considers China a ‘strategic partner’ and supports a Beijing-Mercosur trade accord
Uruguay sees China as a ‘strategic partner’ and has kept good relations with Beijing since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1988, said Uruguayan Foreign Affairs minister Luis Almagro, a former ambassador to China from 2007-2009. Almagro made the statement as Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping begun his official visit to Uruguay.
How Argentina torpedoed Uruguay’s FTA with the US, according to Wikileaks
Although in public former Argentine president Nestor Kirchner was supportive of Uruguay’s negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, members of his cabinet warned the US embassy in Buenos Aires that Argentina would block such an initiative in Mercosur, according to the contents of several Wikileaks cables published in Montevideo and Buenos Aires.