What are the next steps for investment protection in South Africa, as the country draws up new legislation governing foreign direct investment following the termination of a number of bilateral investment treaties ?
Despite the deep irony of free trade agreements being subverted to codify and extend anti-competitive monopoly rights the joining of enhanced intellectual property rights (IPRs) and strengthened investor rights is creating a wild-west opportunity for unbounded corporate power.
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.
This briefing finds significant ICSID bias in favour of corporations and commercial interests by analysing ICSID overall and by looking at a specific case brought by a global mining corporation against El Salvador.
The European Commission wants the new Investment Court System (ICS) in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to be co-financed from the EU budget only, Mauro Petriccione, Deputy Director-General at DG Trade has told MEPs.
El Salvador is defending itself against a US$301m lawsuit filed after it blocked a mining project to protect the country’s heavy-polluted water supply. The imminent verdict will set a precedent amid a growing trend of companies suing governments when they can’t exploit their natural resources.
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.