CIADI/Telecom Italia : ¡hands off Bolivia !

7 décembre 2007

“Some multinational companies take over our natural resources, privatize basic services, fail to pay taxes and then, when they have no arguments in their defense, they go to the so-called ICSID. And then, in that World Bank tribunal, no country wins against the multinationals. So why do we need an ICSID where only the multinational companies can win ?” – President Evo Morales of Bolivia

Another World Bank/Multinational Attack on Bolivia – Stop ICISD and Telecom Italia

Once again, Bolivia is under attack by multinationals and the World Bank. In 2000, the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia took back their water system after it was privatized to US based Bechtel Corporation, and prices were hiked up to 300%. Bechtel struck back, suing Bolivia through the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID. But pressure from citizens and social organizations around the world succeeded in forcing Bechtel to back off – and the suit was finally dropped.

Now, Telecom Italia – one of the world’s largest telecom operators and the dominant telephone company in Bolivia – has followed suit. The public phone company in Bolivia, ENTEL, was taken over by the Italian company in 1995.

When Bolivia suggested that Telecom Italia has provided faulty service, has not reinvested profits from Bolivia to benefit Bolivians, and then set up a commission to explore recovering control of the once-public company, Telecom went to the World Bank to sue Bolivia. At ICSID Telecom is claiming Bolivia has “destroyed” it’s investment – even though the company continues to operate and make money. Bolivia, having learned from it’s lessons from Cochabamba, pulled out of ICSID on May 2, 2007. Yet the World Bank’s ICSID still admitted the case on October 31st.

After decades of privatizations and corporate privilege, Bolivia is saying “enough” – enough corporate profit before public service, enough World Bank providing private “justice” for multinationals, at the expense of countries like Bolivia.

Bolivia needs your help. Learn about the case, and fight back :

1.Learn more about the Telecom case at ICISD, and how international law and the World Bank/ICSID give corporations “super powers” that can trump people’s rights and development, and why Bolivia left ICSID.

2.Join in calling on ICISD and Telecom Italia to back off.

Please see www.cadtm.org/spip.php?article2975 <http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?article2975> to get the fulll information
 

Good overview of the rising opposition to and the unravelling of the free trade model in Latin America   more »

Tres video clips sobre los temas de la privatización del agua, libre comercio y resistencia y arte.

Three video clips on the themes of privatisation of water, free trade and resistance and art

http://www.togethertv.org/people/latin_america/bolivia_maxima.htm

Bolivia faces ten litigations by multinational companies in the coming year, who argue that the Bolivia Government’s actions on water and gas undermine their investors’ rights protected by Bilateral Investment Treaties. Within Bolivia, lawyers have joined forces with Congressman Wilson Magne to challenge the treaties saying they are unconstitutional. Activists have warned that any attempt to sue Bolivia will lead to massive international campaigns against the multinational companies involved.   more »

Walden Bello argues that despite the rhetoric, developed and developing countries are closer to a new trade deal than we would think. Positions on services and access to industrial goods is closer than initially proclaimed, and small concessions by EU and the US to open up restrictions on skilled immigrant labour and to phase out agricultural export subsidies over a long time-table could prompt further movement and a deal that would harm the poor. He urges civil society to stand together to put pressure on Southern governments not to sign up to a bad deal.   more »

Last night (28 July), the US House of Representatives narrowly passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement which aims to reduce trade barriers between the US and six Central American countries. Campaigners in Bolivia have expressed their dismay at a deal that will deepen poverty and environmental degradation in Central America, but vowed to continue the fight to prevent similar "free trade" agreements in the Andes.   more »

Governments and institutions like the IMF and World Bank frequently say there is no alternative to free trade. However Bolivia's social movements are not afraid to speak out for change, given that two decades of "free market" policies have merely exarcebated poverty and damaged the environment. In April, 2005, representatives of hundreds of popular organizations including campesino (rural farmers) groups, women’s organizations, trade unions, faith groups, teachers and other professions came together to discuss how to enshrine a just and solidarity-based trading system within the rules of a new Constitution.   more »

Bolivia has been threatened with the initiation of legal action by a series of multinational companies in the last month. All have said their actions are based on Bolivia breaching its commitments under Bilateral Investment Agreements or BITs. But what are BITs and why are they undermining people's rights to clean water, health and sovereignty over their own resources?   more »

Christian Aid have put together a 4 minute video clip that looks at the reasons for the protests for nationalisation of gas during May and June 2005.

View clip>>
Background on protests (Open Democracy)>>

Bolivia is currently an observer at negotiations for a free trade agreement between the US and Andean countries. Fundacion Solon is part of the Bolivian movement against the TLC. Here it outlines ten reasons why a trade deal would do more harm than good.   more »

A handful of multinational energy firms are on the verge of sending notices of dispute to Bolivia - which would set in motion mandatory periods for consultations, after which the firms may turn to international arbitration under investment treaties.   more »

As the US administration battle for votes to approve the Central American Free Trade agreement in Congress, the New York Times quotes Fundación Solon as it catalogues the growing opposition to free trade across Latin America and highlights the likely negative impact of free trade agreements on Bolivia's pharmaceutical industry.   more »

More than 160 civil society organizations from around the world sent a letter to WTO ambassadors in Geneva Thursday expressing their deep concerns regarding the current round of negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), which is part of the 'single undertaking' under the July 2004 Framework.   more »