Discuss this articleShare your views with other visitors, and read what they have to say
Bolivia is considering a WTO complaint over the 15 December suspension of its trade preferences under the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA). The Bush administration cited Bolivia’s failure to live up to the programme’s counter-narcotics co-operation criteria as the reason for the suspension, but said the benefits could be restored if the country were to improve its performance.
President Morales said on 16 December that Bolivia had already prepared a WTO dispute on the matter, but decided to postpone it in hopes that President Obama would “repair this injustice.” That now looks unlikely, at least in the short term (see page 17), and the initiation of a WTO case is reportedly again under consideration in La Paz.
Bolivia’s potential WTO challenge would most likely be built on the principle that once criteria have been established for a preference programme, the benefits must be equally available to all countries that meet the requirements. That principle was confirmed by the Appellate Body in 2004 and resulted in the restructuring of the European Union’s Generalised System of Preferences. Should Bolivia go through with its dispute settlement threat, the WTO would have to establish whether its exclusion results in the ATPDEA being applied in an arbitrary manner.
And therein lies the rub. While the US has cited significant increases in cocaine production and government-sanctioned coca cultivation as reasons for the suspension, Bolivia maintains that the move is politically motivated. Bolivian authorities argue that their country has done more to eradicate illegal cultivation and clamp down on cocaine trade than either Colombia or Peru, which continue to benefit from ATPDEA preferences. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, coca cultivation increased by 27 percent in Colombia - compared to 5 percent in Bolivia and 4 percent in Peru - in 2007.
Add a comment
Enter your details and a comment below, then click Submit Comment. We’ll review and publish the best comments.