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 lot of media discussion about international trade gets caught up in process – the events at the WTO in Geneva, the next meeting of trade negotiators, plans for the next ministerial gathering, what’s happening in the various forums with confusing acronyms – TPP, CETA, NAFTA, ASEAN, APEC, and on and on. Trying to make… Read More »
I was quoted in a Globe and Mail article by Shawn McCarthy, 24 March 2015, reporting on Canada’s loss in a NAFTA arbitration over a quarry and marine terminal that the Province of Nova Scotia refused to approve: There is a growing concern in legal circles that the arbitration panels are expanding their mandate –… 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 »
In an op-ed piece in the Financial Post (Toronto) on March 19, 2015, I discuss the machinations in the US Congress and the implications of the various political aspects surrounding the lack – so far – of the US administration’s authority to negotiate free trade agreements. This has a major bearing on the current Trans-Pacific… 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 »
Just when there was some feeling that the old Canada-US trade wars of a couple of decades back were really at an end, there are new and darkening clouds on the horizon. The first bit of gloom is in softwood lumber, a dispute that’s been off the front burner for a while under a bilateral… Read More »
Op-Ed published in The Globe and Mail on January 28, 2015 Lawrence L. Herman, principal at Herman and Associates, practises international trade law and is a senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto. It’s happening again. In the early 1980s, Canadians witnessed the sorry spectacle of provinces roaming around Westminster, cap in hand, lobbying… Read More »
The broad and aggressive out-reach of US law has again reared up in Canada. This time it’s Buy America and the requirement that the Prince Rupert ferry upgrade must use US steel. It shows how Canada can be sideswiped by the American approach in legislating with intended global effect. In this case, a rapid Canadian… Read More »
I just published a short article on the current controversy regarding the rights of investors to invoke binding dispute settlement proceedings again host governments. This is known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement or ISDS and is enshrined in hundreds of bilateral investment protection treaties around the world. The issue has recently come to the fore with… Read More »