I confess I’m not a fan of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. I find much of their stuff to be ideologically-driven and one-sided. I’m put off by their anti-free trade rhetoric and their congenital hostility toward the WTO and liberalized trade generally. As a believer in the progressive development of international law, I don’t… Read More »
There are over 2,500 bilateral investment treaties that incorporate investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanisms. These allow foreign investors to bring binding arbitration against host-States for allegedly unfair or arbitrary actions (laws or other measures) affecting the value of their investments. There’s growing concern among informed persons over this entrenched model, as I’ve commented on before.… Read More »
A NAFTA arbitration panel has decided against Canada in a long-standing investment dispute over a large coastal quarry and marine project in Nova Scotia that had been turned down over environmental and social concerns (Clayton/Bilcon v. Canada). A majority of the panel said that Canada and Nova Scotia breached the minimum standard of treatment under… Read More »
It’s been reported that a NAFTA investment dispute panel has ordered Canada to pay $17 million in compensation to Exxon-Mobil and Murphy Oil due to changes to the to the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board Guidelines governing offshore oil and gas development on the continental shelf off Newfoundland and Labrador. The award isn’t public as yet, but… Read More »
On August 27, 2014, a NAFTA panel dismissed a claim by the Canadian pharmaceutical company, Apotex Inc., that had argued that the US government had breached the non-discrimination clauses in the Agreement by issuing an Import Alert over the company’s Canadian drug manufacturing processes. In 2008 -2009. the US Food and Drug Administration had inspected… Read More »
The German position rejecting investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) in the CETA– while a last minute surprise and reprehensible for that reason – doesn’t spell the end of the Canada-EU deal by any means. The Germans have simply come out with a position that has been bubbling for some time. More and more stakeholders, beyond the typical… Read More »
There is growing debate about foreign investment protection agreements – what Canada calls “FIPAs”, the Americans call bilateral investment treaties or “BITs” and what others refer to simply as international investment agreements or “IIAs”. Acronyms abound. According to the UN Conference on Trade and Development, there are 3,200 of these around the world, proliferating in… Read More »