insurrección

The Latin American banana producers could create a “common front” to force the European Union (EU) to honor its promise of reducing tariffs. The European bloc took a step backwards in the negotiations with Latin American countries and showed its real face under the cooperation mask it uses to promote free trade agreements.

At times when the Latin American governments expressed their unanimous rejection to the EU’s “Return Directive” that threatens with imprisoning and deporting illegal immigrants in the bloc’s 27 member countries, Spain is expressing its “will” to increase its investments in the region as a form of “compensation”, and it is promoting Economic Partnership Agreements.

Trade: Bolivian leaders object to WTO's Green Room process
Published in SUNS #6524 dated 24 July 2008

It has become evident that, unlike what the European Union has claimed, Association Agreements and Free Trade Agreements promoted by the European bloc with Latin America are not any different from those promoted by the Bush administration.

According to Spanish Secretary of State before the EU, Diego López Garrido, the EU should affirm its expansive foreign policy by taking advantage of the void left by the election atmosphere in the US.

The claim is relevant since Spain will have the EU’s Pro Tempore Presidency when France ends its current term in office, in 2010.

The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, expressed his criticism to the European Union, in its efforts to reach an association agreement with the Latin American and Caribbean countries. He proposed the European authorities to join the construction of a New Regional and National Financial Architecture that challenges the current global economic system.

When the European Commission (EC) was freezing its negotiations of an association agreement with the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) in July -made up by Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador- was showing the first signs of an eventual collapse following Colombia and Peru's will and Belgium's pressure to sign the agreement.

These countries expressed their intention to go on with the negotiations in Brussels, even if they risked losing Bolivia as a member of the bloc, and one of its founders.

The final declaration of the annual summit of the most powerful nations (G8) – whcih ended today in the Japanese city of Hokkaido – has already sparked criticism. Friends of the Earth spokesperson Karen Orenstein said: “G8 leaders today signaled their support for climate chaos by spewing
futile rhetoric that will do nothing to stop the toll that global warming is taking on people and the planet.”

A new op-ed published on Friday by Redes-Friends of the Earth Uruguay says the operations of Belgiun company Katoen Natie against the Uruguayan state's construction of a containers terminal in the port of the capital, Montevideo, and its threat to file an international legal action for breach of contract, show the use that corporations make of Investment Protection Treaties signed by the countries to ensure their profits.

The tariffs have increased four fold in Guatemala in the past twelve months. The permanent energy cuts damage home appliances with high costs and the people affected have not been provided with solutions by the state.
This state of affairs in Guatemala is the result of the bad services provided by electricity supplier companies Deorsa and Deocsa, both subsidiaries of Spanish company Union Fenosa. This European corporation is also being questioned for its operations in Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua.