In this letter to Export Development Canada and the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Chilean and Argentine organizations express harsh criticisms regarding the public agencies' due diligence processes concerning Barrick Gold's application for support for Pascua Lama.

The role of the World Bank in climate finance; Europeans raise the bar on export credit disclosure; the FTT; glacier protection in Argentina; new UN working group.

Canadian mining interests in countries around the world are valued at tens of billions of dollars.

Article concerning lack of accountability in Canada regarding our overseas extractive sector.

ODA accountability consultation; World Bank dumps human rights; Bank report on extractives ignores reality.

General Observations

The undersigned civil society organizations believe the latest drafts of the Sustainability Policy, Performance Standards, and Disclosure Policy respond usefully to some issues raised previously by many civil society organizations, including, for example, several issues related to gender, resettlement, and climate change.  Many of our most significant concerns, however, remain unaddressed, including centrally important issues related to due diligence, transparency, and accountability, and other issues related to substantive concerns.