“December 21 of 2012 will be the end of egoism and division. December 21 should be the end of Coca-Cola.”-David Choquehuanca, Foreign Minister of Bolivia
This recent statement by officials from the South American country has been interpreted as meaning Coca Cola was banned from Bolivia. But David Choquehuanca has come out and stressed that emphasis needs to placed on his use of the word “should”.
(So far the only countries with official bans on Coca Cola are Korea North, Cuba and Myanmar.)
The government of Bolivia has started a campaign pushing for Bolivians to buy products made in Bolivia, not products from the United States.
Bolivia is not alone as Venezuela has also started a similar campaign. Venezuela even banned Coke Zero.
In 2011 Bolivia kicked out McDonalds.
At the end of July 2012, the government of Chile filed suit against McDonalds, Burger King and KFC on the grounds they violate the country’s anti-toy in happy meals law.
Also at the end of July 2012, Venezuela shut down 89 McDonalds for tax evasion.
In March 2012, Peru began enforcing their ban on the sale of food products made with genetically modified crops (aka GMO foods). The ban directly affects Monsanto, Dow Chemical and Bayer (a German company).
Brazil and Paraguay have similar bans as well. Venezuela banned all GMO seeds.
In 2011, Argentina temporarily banned the sale of Blackberry phones and Apple computer products. Argentina has also temporarily banned U.S. beef products.
Brazil has banned specific ingredients in cigarettes, which is hurting U.S. tobacco companies.
On 02 August 2012, Brazil officially banned Chevron from doing business in their country. This after two massive, and unexplained, oil spills (of course U.S. media says the spills were minor).
At the end of 2011, the countries of South America formed their own economic union called Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, or Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). The United States and Canada were not invited.
Now, India will be the first country to hold official trade talks with CELAC, scheduled for 07 August: “India enjoys friendly and warm relations with all CELAC countries. They have a shared understanding on the values of democracy, freedom, equality and justice.” Indian Ministry of External Affairs statement