Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP)
What you should know
In 2022, President Biden announced the “Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity” (APEP), a platform for economic integration with Barbados, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.
Details are currently scarce. The Biden administration says APEP will not be a traditional free trade agreement, but a new initiative that intends to move away from the old, deeply unfair “trickle-down economics” type of trade deal.
To meet this goal, APEP must help to undo the harms of our past neoliberal model that extracted wealth and resources from the region, supported “Banana Republics,” and gave corporations undue influence and control over countries’ regulatory and financial policies.
As a first step, APEP should be an opportunity for participating countries to eliminate their Investor-State Dispute Settlement provisions. ISDS empowers corporations to challenge public interest laws and win taxpayer money in compensation, undermining governments’ efforts to build strong democratic institutions, support equitable economic development, and pursue ambitious climate policy.