Pacific Rim sues El Salvador for $77 million
Pacific Rim, the Canadian gold-mining company, filed an international arbitration against El Salvador under DR-CAFTA this week. The suit had been anticipated ever since the company served a preliminary notice of its intent to arbitrate last December.
A copy of Pac-Rim's arbitration demand is available at this link. Pac-Rim asserts that the government of El Salvador is in violation of Chapter 10 of DR-CAFTA, which provides protections to foreign firms investing in DR-CAFTA countries. As described in this blog several times before, Pac-Rim believes that El Salvador has arbitrarily and contrary to Salvadoran law, denied it permits to extract gold at its El Dorado mine.
The arbitration demand takes aim squarely at President Tony Saca as the person behind the denial of the mining permits. But since Saca will soon be leaving office, it will be new president Mauricio Funes who will have to deal with the arbitration demand during his term in office. Funes stated during the campaign that he opposes gold mining in the country.
A copy of Pac-Rim's arbitration demand is available at this link. Pac-Rim asserts that the government of El Salvador is in violation of Chapter 10 of DR-CAFTA, which provides protections to foreign firms investing in DR-CAFTA countries. As described in this blog several times before, Pac-Rim believes that El Salvador has arbitrarily and contrary to Salvadoran law, denied it permits to extract gold at its El Dorado mine.
The arbitration demand takes aim squarely at President Tony Saca as the person behind the denial of the mining permits. But since Saca will soon be leaving office, it will be new president Mauricio Funes who will have to deal with the arbitration demand during his term in office. Funes stated during the campaign that he opposes gold mining in the country.
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