Pacific

Pacific states have signed 72 trade and investment agreements, 39 of which have been concluded by Australia alone.

Most of Australia’s free trade deals contain investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions, including those with ASEAN and New Zealand (AANZFTA), China (ChAFTA), India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico or Turkey.

Following a dispute with Philip Morris over an anti-tobacco law, Australia claimed it would refrain from engaging into new investment agreements with ISDS. However Australia’s more recent agreements such as ChAFTA, the Indonesia FTA, the Hong Kong FTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) include ISDS.

The Philip Morris vs. Australia case is the most well-known dispute to date. When Australia introduced plain packaging for all tobacco products in 2011, Philip Morris initiated a claim against Australia before an arbitral tribunal. In its December 2015 decision, the tribunal dismissed the case, albeit on legal grounds only. Australia spent A$24 million but Philip Morris only paid half, leaving the Australian taxpayers to pay the rest.

The Pacific has been the least targeted region. Only Australian investors have initiated disputes on seven registered occasions, two of which were under the Energy Charter Treaty.

Photo: Dominic Hartnett / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

(April 2020)

Sydney Criminal Lawyers | 30-Oct-2019
Interview with AFTINET convenor Dr Patricia Ranald about how the ISDS regime developed, the reasons why these mechanisms are so detrimental, and the impact the TPP-11 agreement could have on Australia.
AFTINET | 21-Oct-2019
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Corrs Chambers Westgarth | 14-Aug-2019
The New York Convention is regarded as the most influential treaty in the area of international trade and international commercial arbitration.
Scoop Politics | 31-Jul-2019
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The Age | 22-Jul-2019
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Bangkok Post | 12-Jun-2019
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AFTINET | 12-Jun-2019
A new study of trade and investment deals concluded in 2018 by UNCTAD shows that most have either omitted ISDS altogether or severely limited its scope, reports AFTINET
Reuters | 14-May-2019
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UNSW | 7-May-2019
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Kluwer Arbitration Blog | 30-Apr-2019
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