This comment deals with the legal and geopolitical ramifications of the recent EU-China investment treaty. It notes that Canada also has an investment agreement with China, concluded at a different time and when there was seen to be value in this kind of deal with China. Investment Treaty with China Raises Concerns-Globe 14 Jan 2021
This is a column of mine in the Globe and Mail (Toronto), 25 January 2021, about the Keystone XL permit cancellation, commenting on how calls for Canadian “sanctions” or “retaliation” made by the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan make no sense. As well, neither the WTO Agreement nor CUSMA provide legal justification for this kind… Read More »
This commentary, published by the C. D. Howe Institute, deals with investor claims under NAFTA Chapter 11 and assesses Canada’s win-loss record over the past 25 years. These arbitrations are coming to an end under the new NAFTA – or CUSMA as it’s called in Canada. I say that’s a welcome development. NAFTA Investment Disputes-Bringing… Read More »
The investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) part of the CETA is the focus of Wallonia’s objections to the deal. We can actually solve that roadblock. ISDS was never a sine qua non for Canada. We replicated the NAFTA model (making some later improvements) without any real thought or analysis of whether the Canadian investment community saw ISDS as… 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 »
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 »