ISDS allows foreign investors to sue our Government

June 24 2019: Leaders of the ten ASEAN countries met in Bangkok on June 22 and urged support for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade and investment deal between ASEAN and India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. But community organisation advocates meeting before the ASEAN summit argued that the RCEP development model favours international investor interests over people and the environment.

June 12, 2019: A new study of trade and investment deals concluded in 2018 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that most have either omitted ISDS altogether or severely limited its scope. This reflects growing concerns about ISDS cases based on older treaties that have no provisions to prevent or limit foreign investors from suing governments over health, environment and other public interest laws. The UN Commission on on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)  is currently conducting a review of ISDS based on such concerns which has prompted sharp debate.

May 30, 2019: In a recent interview with Reuters Columbia University Professor Joseph Stiglitz has slammed trade deals that include Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS enables foreign investor rights to sue governments for millions in international tribunals over changes to environmental laws.

May 29. 2019: The latest report by the United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which monitors known cases of global corporations suing governments, shows the number of ISDS cases reached 942 with 71 new cases by the end of 2018. This continues the rapid growth in cases over recent years and it is predicted that the total number of cases could reach 1000 in 2019.

May 22, 2019: Legal academics have confirmed  that the recent Indonesia trade deal has no provisions to cancel the old 1993 Indonesia-Australia bilateral investment agreement, which will remain in force alongside the new agreement.

May 13, 2019: Imagine there’s a new government elected on May 18, say a Labor government that relies on Green and Centre Alliance support in the Senate.  AFTINET convenor Dr Patricia Ranald explains how bad rules in trade agreements could threaten the implementation of progressive policies on TAFE and climate change.

May 9, 2019: UNSW legal researcher Dr Jonathan Bonnitcha has confirmed AFTINET’s concerns that the Adani mining company could use the Investor-State Dispute (ISDS) process in the India-Australia Bilateral Investment Treaty to claim compensation of billions of dollars from the Australian government if its mining licence is cancelled for environmental reasons.

8 May, 2019: A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, MiningWatch Canada, and the Center for International Environmental Law examines all 38 known Investor-State Disputes that have been brought by mining companies against governments in Latin America. The companies are using special rights in trade and investment agreements to sue governments in international tribunals for billions of dollars in compensation for court decisions, laws and public policies that they claim reduce the value of their investments. Many of these laws and policies protect indigenous land rights, health or the environment.

May 2, 2019: AFTINET has joined with organisations from Guatemala and 226 other national and international organisations to sign a letter delivered to Guatemalan and US authorities denouncing an ISDS claim for $300 million dollars by the US mining company Kappes, Cassiday and Associates (KCA).

April 29, 2019: An academic study by Jonathon Bonnitcha and Zoe Williams has systematically analysed Investor-state dispute Settlement (ISDS) cases in which foreign Investors have successfully argued that they should be compensated for new laws or policies resulting from changes of government or other democratic pressures.