North America

Canada and the United States have signed about 180 investment agreements.

They are both party to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico. Sixty-seven disputes were launched under NAFTA.

NAFTA was recently renegotiated and replaced by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that was signed in November 2018 and is yet to enter in force. The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism between the US and Canada, and between Mexico and Canada has been removed – even though it is included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to which both Mexico and Canada belong. Only limited claims are allowed between the US and Mexico, after exhaustion of local remedies. But the ISDS mechanism has been maintained between the two countries for claims pertaining to Mexico’s oil and gas sector.

The US is also party to the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), with six Central American states. US investors have initiated all 11 known CAFTA disputes.

Canada has an investment treaty with China and is party to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union. CETA includes a revised ISDS mechanism, the investment court system, which has been critiqued for not addressing the core of the problem behind the mechanism.

US investors have extensively used the ISDS mechanism. They have initiated around 180 disputes, over 17% of all known cases, making the US the most frequent home state of investors. The US has never lost an ISDS case.

Canadian investors have initiated about 50 disputes and Canada has been the fourth most frequent target among ‘developed’ states (9th globally), with 29 cases.

Photo: Public Citizen

(April 2020)

The Conversation | 9-Oct-2015
Up until now, Australia has never agreed to provide American investors with access to Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), whereas Canada has. In total Canada has faced 35 challenges. Australia has been subjected to only one case.
Global Trade Online | 7-Oct-2015
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) countries have agreed on language that will allow members to exclude tobacco control measures from the scope of investor-state dispute settlement.
The Star | 2-Oct-2015
What little we know about the Harper government’s many international trade deals is cause for grave concern.
Embassy | 1-Oct-2015
Canada will likely be left out of a new system proposed by the European Union for settling disputes between countries and corporations—at least for now.
Focus Online | 30-Sep-2015
Rankin acted on behalf of an American mining corporation in its successful bid to sue Canada using NAFTA.
RT | 26-Sep-2015
Campaigners gathered outside a secret court in central London on Friday to protest against a controversial EU-Canada trade deal that will empower corporations to sue the British government.
Tele Sur | 25-Sep-2015
Canadians must now counter Chevron’s inevitable propaganda campaign as the legal battle continues.
rabble.ca | 23-Sep-2015
For years, trade and justice activists have proposed renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to address some of the deal’s most damaging features: for example, by removing the anti-democratic investor-state dispute settlement provisions of Chapter 11, linking trade benefits to genuine protections for human and labour rights (all the more important given the deteriorating democratic situation in Mexico), and establishing a continent-wide strategy for auto investment and production.
Le Devoir | 18-Sep-2015
Le mécanisme de règlement des différends indispose une majorité de citoyens