Bolivia has created a new Cabinet-level ministry to defend the country from legal battles sparked by Bolivian President Evo Morales’ drive to nationalize key sectors of the economy.
To be led by Hector Arce, a 37-year-old lawyer and former government coordination minister, the new agency will back state efforts to reclaim control of petroleum, mining, telecommunications and other companies that were privatized during the 1990s, Morales said late on Thursday.
Details on the ministry’s powers and responsibilities were not immediately available, but it appears set to lead often testy takeover talks with foreign companies, now handled by the foreign ministry.
PHOTO: AP
Morales has sought control of many privatized industries, boosting state ownership of Bolivia’s oil and gas sector in 2006 — a so-called “nationalization” that grabbed headlines but allowed most foreign companies to continue operations.
This year he fully nationalized several natural gas producers and logistics companies, including subsidiaries of the Spanish company Repsol YPF and British Petroleum. He nationalized Bolivia’s few railroads last year.
Some companies have threatened to challenge the takeovers in international court, prompting Bolivia to withdraw last year from a World Bank tribunal that hears disputes between governments and foreign businesses. The court’s rulings are often biased, Bolivian officials said.
But still pending before the tribunal is an arbitration request from Italy’s Euro Telecom International, which is disputing Bolivia’s move to nationalize its subsidiary, Entel. The company was Bolivia’s state telephone company until it was privatized in 1995.
Swiss mining company Glencore International has also disputed Morales’ nationalization of a Bolivian tin smelter last year, citing an investment treaty between the two countries.
The case will likely be resolved in ongoing talks over two other Glencore mines, said a mining ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the talks.
At the urging of the World Bank and IMF, Bolivia underwent sweeping privatizations in the mid-1990s, selling state-owned oil and gas, water, power, railroad and telecommunications companies, along with the national airline and state pension plan.
But the policy’s mixed results largely failed to spur the economic growth the international creditors had hoped for, instead prompting the anti-privatization sentiments that drive Morales’ economic policies.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS