The European Union has warned Argentina that it risks jeopardizing trade ties over Buenos Aires’ plans to expropriate a unit of Spanish oil company Repsol YPF SA (REP.MC) and impose a series of import restrictions and that Brussels stands ready to take retaliatory action.
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner questioned US president Barack Obama’s recent decision to suspend trade benefits for Argentina, while complaining that “we can’t even manage to get one of our lemons to enter the US market.”
Trade frictions are on the rise between Washington and Buenos Aires, after US President Barack Obama announced that the US would be suspending Argentina from its Generalised System of Preferences programme for failure to pay arbitration awards in two disputes involving US investors.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday he was suspending trade benefits for Argentina because of the South American country’s failure to pay more than $300 million in compensation awards in two disputes involving American investors.
The United States could soon suspend trade benefits for Argentina because of that country’s failure to pay awards in two long-running investment disputes with U.S. companies, a U.S. trade official said on Monday.
Argentina has never threatened to quit ICSID. Its government insists it is open to honouring the awards. The only delay, it says, is that the claimants have not brought their rulings to a local court for collection.
Azurix Corp plans to ask the Obama administration for help in recovering more than $230 million it says it is owned by the government of Argentina. It would be the first time a US company has used the "Section 301" trade law to pressure a foreign government to pay an award decided by an arbitrator in an investment dispute.
French media conglomerate Vivendi (VIV.FR) Tuesday said the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID, reaffirmed its original ruling and financial award in favour of the company in a long-running dispute with Argentina.
The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or Icsid, dismissed the claims lodged by Enron Creditors Recovery Corp and Ponderosa Assets L.P. late Friday.
A committee of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruled in favour of Argentina and cancelled a decision by which it had been condemned to pay more than US$106 million to shareholding companies of the local Southern Gas Conveyor (TGS)