In 2009 LASO participated in the mandatory Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) of the trade negotiations between the European Union and the Andean countries – Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia – which eventually resulted in the consolidation of free trade agreements with the former two.

The SIA study was co-ordinated by Development Solutions, Ltd. jointly with the University of Manchester, CEPR and LASO. The objective of the study was to examine all possible environmental and social risks of trade intensification, on the basis of an econometric model of the sectoral effects of trade liberalization in two middle-term scenarios.

The exercise also comprised a cycle of consultations with civil society, state and private sector representatives of European and Andean countries, through an Internet survey and three international workshops held in Brussels and in Lima, Peru.