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)

NZ Herald | 30-Oct-2015
New Zealand has an open mind about replacing traditional investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) with a new international court-based system proposed by the European Union.
| 28-Oct-2015
Catherine Beard claims there is no problem with the ability of corporations to sue the New Zealand government in offshore tribunals for loss of profits under the TPPA. She bases this on "commissioned research" from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER).
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.
Australasian Lawyer | 9-Oct-2015
Law firms are among the many Australian businesses likely to benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
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.
| 23-Sep-2015
Under a Trans Pacific Partnership deal, foreign investors in New Zealand could be able to take international legal action against a government decision such as that which rejected a Chinese company’s bid for Lochinver Station, says an Auckland Law School senior lecturer.
GetUp! | 18-Sep-2015
Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), multinational corporations will be able to sue the Australian Government in secret corporate courts over laws that protect our health, environment and workers’ rights.
Holding Redlich | 28-Aug-2015
Changes to Australian food labelling laws provide consumers with an increased understanding of the origin of their food. The challenge Australia faces is to ensure compliance with foreign investment trade agreements.
Financial Review | 29-Jul-2015
Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb says he won’t sign off on investor-state dispute settlement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership "until we’re satisfied that there’s a carve out for public policy on health and the environment,"