El Salvador Perspectives

The Commerce Group is one of two gold mining companies which  sued the government of El Salvador under CAFTA.   The international arbitration claim brought by the Commerce Group was dismissed earlier this year for failure to comply with procedural requirements of CAFTA .   The Commerce Group has appealed in what is called an "annulment procedure."  Last week, the Commerce Group announced to the arbitration tribunal that it could not make a $150,000 advance payment of costs which the tribunal had requested.   The appeal could be suspended for that reason. The Commerce Group is a barely publicly traded company located in Waukesha, Wisconsin and controlled by the Machulak family.   On Monday, John Machulak who is a lawyer and has been representing the company in the lawsuit gave a rare interview about the company's position to radio station WUWM, Milwaukee public radio.   You can listen to that interview at  this link . Update: The group US...

The arbitration claim filed by Milwaukee, Wisconsin based Commerce Group was dismissed yesterday by the international arbitration tribunal hearing the case. The Commerce Group had filed suit under the DR-CAFTA trade agreement's investor protection provisions, asserting that El Salvador's decision to revoke its permission to mine in the country was improper. The decision by the tribunal is a narrow and technical one. The arbitrators ruled that the Commerce Group had failed to comply with the "waiver" requirement under DR-CAFTA which requires that a party cease any other legal proceedings over the dispute and proceed only before the arbitration panel. Because the Commerce Group was still proceeding in the Salvadoran court system to challenge the permit process, the waiver requirement was not met. A copy of the decision can be downloaded here . Because this is a narrow procedural decision, it sheds no light on the prospects for the similar arbitration brought...

Two different headlines today are intricately related. On the CNN Money website, the headline was Gold Edges Up to a New Record , which told readers that for the first time in history, the price of gold on international markets closed at $1280 an ounce. In the Salvadoran newspaper DiarioCoLatino, the headline was San Sebastian: The Open Secret of Mining Pollution . This article describes the legacy of pollution in the San Sebastian river, which local residents and activists say stems from a gold mine there. The mine is owned by the US company the Commerce Group, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the record high prices of gold which have led North American gold mining companies like the Commerce Group and Canadian firm Pacific Rim to go to battle with the government of El Salvador. The Salvadoran government currently prohibits both firms from operating gold mining concessions. With gold at record high prices, the conflict between monetary profits and the fear of environmental ...