Comments have been made in some quarters about the recently-announced 15% tax imposed by the BC government on non-resident purchases of residential property to the effect the measure might offend Canada’s obligations under the NAFTA. These come as a surprise, since few would have thought that an internal measure like this would even remotely involve… Read More »
Lawrence Herman appeared before the House of Commons Trade Committee, at their request, on 5 May 2016, to present testimony on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). The following are notes from Mr. Herman tabled with the Committee. Lawrence L. Herman Notes for Presentation, 5 May 2016 Introduction The following are general comments on the TPPA… Read More »
Canada won another NAFTA investment dispute launched by a US investor under Chapter 11 of the NAFTA, the full 26 March 2016 decision recently being released. Observers of these investment cases are keen to search the dense wording (and this decision is no less dense than many others) to find some golden mien that will… Read More »
Canada Pays Out The federal government just announced that it was paying Mobil Investments and Murphy Oil some $19 million to satisfy a decision of a NAFTA investment arbitration panel last year. The tribunal found that certain guidelines of the Canada-Newfoundland Offshore Petroleum Board were discriminatory and thereby breached Canada’s NAFTA obligations. Although the government… Read More »
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 »
Further to my post below (23 March 2015), there is growing concern in well-informed legal and public policy circles over the recent Bilcon v. Canada arbitration award under NAFTA Chapter 11. These concerns are fueling opposition to investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) as constituted in the NAFTA and a wide array of other investment treaties, with… 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 »
The reported German rejection of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in the Canada-EU trade and investment agreement, while inexcusably late in the day, shouldn’t come as a total surprise. The July 26 Sueddeutsche Zeitung report simply articulates Germany’s growing distrust over these binding investment arbitration provisions, of particular German concern in the context of the EU-US… 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 »