A World Bank Arbitration Court ruled today in favour of El Salvador in a lawsuit filed by the US miner Commerce Group, rejecting the case on lack of jurisdiction. The court did not assess the merits of the dispute and stated that the claimant did not comply with a provision of the Central American - Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).

Article 10.18 of CAFTA states that no claim may be submitted for arbitration unless the notification of this process is accompanied by the resignation in writing by the applicant of any right to start or continue any other procedure with respect to the same extent. But the Commerce Group did not halt ongoing court proceedings of the same case before the Chambers of the Supreme Court of Justice in El Salvador.  Commerce Group has been mining for precious metals in El Salvador since 1968.

Between 1987 and early 2006, it expanded its mining and related activities in the country, regulated by exploration licenses and the environmental permits granted by the Government of El Salvador.

However in late 2006, the Government of El Salvador reversed Commerce Group environmental permits and did not renew their exploration licenses.

The Commerce Group claimed that those measures breached the terms of CAFTA and decided to submit the dispute to the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for arbitration.

Anti-mining organizations claim environmental damages arising from the operations of the Commerce Group in the mines of San Sebastián (La Union) and San Cristóbal (San Miguel) to extract gold and silver in eastern El Salvador. The mining company was pursuing a compensation of US$ 100 million.