Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Patton Boggs Ends Lobbying for Ecuador
The Washington DC based law firm Patton Boggs has ended an annual $780,000 lobbying contract with Ecuador, according to a report in the National Law Journal. The NLJ reports that the firm has stopped lobbying for the country, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act report the firm filed Friday with the U.S. Justice Department.
Justice Department records show that Ecuador hired Patton Boggs in 2009 to "improve its reputational image and bilateral relations with the United States." The report filed last week with the Justice Department does not say why the lobbying ended, and a spokesman for the firm declined comment to the NLJ.
The termination report came shortly after Ecuador pulled out of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), a trade preference system for favorable duty treatment for exports to the United States. Ecuador pulled out of the ATPA in response to U.S. pressure not to grant asylum to Edward Snowden, the man who leaked news about a previously secret U.S. surveillance program.
(mew)
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/international_law/2013/07/patton-boggs-ends-lobbying-for-ecuador.html
