Canada and the United States have signed over 170 international investment agreements. The largest of these include the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with ten other Pacific Rim states, currently in the process of being ratified.
The US is also party to the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and is negotiating the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union.
Canada has signed the Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) with China and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, the latter one yet to be ratified.
US investors have extensively used the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions of these treaties. They have initiated around 130 disputes, over 20% of all known cases, making it the most frequent home state of the investor. The US has never lost an ISDS litigation.
On the other hand Canadian investors have initiated about 35 disputes and Canada has been the second most frequent target among developed states (5th globally).
(October 2015)
