Multiple Countries Rejecting Investor State Dispute Settlement

By Janet M Eaton, Phd.  April 12th, 2012



There appears to be a growing awareness that NAFTA-style foreign investor privileges and their private "investor-state dispute system [ISD] ,which have been among the most controversial aspects of past US  trade deals,  should be rejected in trade and investment agreements.

In particular this provision has emerged as a point of major contention in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, with Julia Gillard's Australian government  announcing last April that they would reject Investor - state arbitration in all trade agreements.  It seems that her government , was not only concerned about the loss of public policy sovereignty  but  was also taking seriously the advice of the  Australian Productivity Commission which concluded there were few clear benefits, and several worrying risks, associated with such provisions." [1]

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