January 9, 2026: Just weeks before a US military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro, the American oil service giant Halliburton filed an international arbitration claim against the Venezuelan state. The lawsuit, lodged on December 11 at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), seeks compensation for losses the company incurred after withdrawing from Venezuela under US sanctions.

January 6, 2026: A new report by Tommaso Giardini for Digital Policy Alert examines whether sustained US pressure is reshaping how other governments regulate the digital economy. Published last month, the study finds that the effects are uneven, contested and often indirect.

January 5, 2026: AFTINET convener Dr Patricia Ranald published an article in the Journal of Australian Political Economy in December 2025 on Trump’s trade policies.

The article analyses the flaws in neoliberal trade policies resulting in deindustrialisation and increased inequality in the US and some other Global North countries, which have enabled him to mobilise support for extreme nationalist and punitive tariff policies, and the impact of other global trends, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for global cooperation to address the climate crisis and geopolitical competition with China.

December 16, 2025: A new report by Public Citizen and Indonesian environmental group Satya Bumi warns that the US-Indonesia trade deal, announced by Trump in July and reportedly at risk of collapse, could unravel Indonesia’s efforts to regain control over its nickel industry, while entrenching labour abuses and environmental damage.

December 15, 2025: After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU, Ukraine itself and almost 20 other countries introduced economic sanctions against the Russian state, and Russian companies and individuals closely linked to the regime.

The European Trade Justice Coalition has produced a report showing how these sanctions are now being challenged by Russian oligarchs and companies in international tribunals using investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in investment treaties with Russia, which enable foreign investors to sue governments for billions over changes in law or policy that affect their future profits. 

December 9,  2025: The tribunal in the first Clive Palmer ISDS case, which claimed $300 billion from the Australian government, has published its decision 10 weeks after it was announced by the government and more than a year after the original hearings. These delays and lack of transparency are typical of ISDS tribunals.

Australian billionaire Palmer registered his mining company in Singapore, claimed to be a Singaporean investor and used an Australian trade agreement with Singapore to sue the Australian government for a total of $420 billion in four separate cases.

December 4, 2025: Canada and the ten Southeast Asian ASEAN countries are currently negotiating the ASEAN - Canada Free Trade Agreement (ACAFTA).  Canadian mining companies want access to critical minerals while countries like Indonesia want to be able to regulate the environmental impacts of mining and ensure value-added processing rather than simple export of raw materials.

One of the key concerns of civil society organisations and communities is the inclusion in the agreement of an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism. ISDS allows foreign investors to sue states in international tribunals for policy changes like environmental protection or industry development policies that may affect their profits, bypassing domestic courts and democratic processes.

MEDIA RELEASE                                                                                                                December 3, 2025                                    &nb

December 2, 2025: The long-running Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) case brought by Australian mining company Kingsgate Consolidated against the Thai Government is coming to a close after both sides requested that the UNCITRAL tribunal terminate the proceedings. The tribunal has acknowledged the request and is preparing a formal termination order.

November 25, 2025: The South Korean government secured a major legal victory after an annulment committee at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) overturned a 2022 ruling that had ordered Seoul to pay $216.5 million to US private equity firm Lone Star Funds. The decision retroactively voids roughly $272 million won in damages and interest.