Colombia to renegotiate arbitration issues of FTAs with the US and UE

Bogotá, Nov 22 (Prensa Latina) Colombia’s President, Gustavo Petro, said Thursday that Colombia will try to renegotiate the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the European Union and the United States, concerning arbitration prerogatives based on national law.

November 22, 2024
06:30

So demanded the president when speaking at the formal ceremony acknowledging the pensions of employees of the former telecommunications company Telecom, liquidated in 2003.

Petro said he has requested Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Luis Carlos Reyes, to begin “negotiating this article that is harmful to national sovereignty, both in the FTA with the United States and in the FTA with Europe.”

He then recalled that next year Colombia will be the pro tempore president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), as a previous step to a meeting with the European bloc, and by then the issue must have been settled.

Petro’s statement follows the recent ruling issued by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), of the World Bank, which favored the Spanish company Telefónica, demanding the Colombian State to pay that company around 500 million euros.

The case is related to the sale of the now defunct state-owned company Telecom 20 years ago.

According to the agreement established with Europe, the ICSID is the international arbitration center authorized to settle investment disputes.

In Petro’s opinion, this condition constitutes “a stab in the back” that undermines national courts in favor of the “partners”.

“It was something that should never have happened when the FTA was signed with Europe: allowing any conflict between the State and the European private company to be handled not by national courts but by the international courts of Ciadi, of the World Bank,” he said.

At this point, he regretted the loss of a large amount of money to benefit Telefónica, the partner of the extinct Telecom.

“There – he said referring to Ciadi – we lose all the processes, but here there is still a chance, but we do not have the sovereignty to demand that if there are conflicts they should be settled by the Colombian justice system, or under the Latin American litigation justice system, and therefore we put ourselves in the mouth of the wolf, or the partner’s justice system,” he stressed.

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