investment | BITs

investment | bilateral investment treaties

Free-trade pact may muddy GrainCorp deal
A side deal in the free-trade agreement with the United States that the Howard government negotiated in 2004 is a wildcard as the Abbott government deals with divisions in its ranks over Archer Daniels Midland's $3.4 billion takeover offer for GrainCorp, the biggest grain handler in eastern Australia.
Is ICSID really good for the Canadian taxpayer?
Most trade lawyers across the country are lauding Canada’s ratification of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes Convention. But they glaze over the serious and far-reaching effects for Canadian public policy.
Trade unions oppose privileged rights for Big Business in EU-Canada trade deal
The European Trade Union Confederation strongly opposes the inclusion of ISDS in CETA, and the subsequent creation of a parallel court system which allows multinationals to sue and threaten governments with heavy costs for doing their democratic job of regulating their societies and economies.
More than 100 organizations sign transatlantic statement opposing dangerous investor "rights" chapter in CETA
As European and Canadian trade officials meet again in Brussels today to continue negotiating an investment protection chapter in the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), transatlantic civil society groups are demanding that this chapter be removed entirely as an affront to democracy, an attack on the independent judiciary, and a threat to climate change and our shared environment.
EU-Singapore free trade agreement: the missing chapter
The European Union and Singapore initialled a free trade agreement on September 20 2013 that is expected to enter into force in late 2014 or early 2015. The agreement includes an investment chapter which is still under negotiation and thus missing from the text of the signed agreement.
Broader access to investment 'key' in EU talks
The European Union sees broader access for investment in China as a key issue in negotiations on an agreement that will consolidate 27 bilateral pacts, the head of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China said.
EU angry as investment policy levels playing field
Is there something the EU trade guys know that they’re not telling the rest of us? Have they got wind of a dastardly ANC plan to expropriate all European-owned assets in South Africa?
Harper moves to give up more Canadian sovereignty
Tthe Harper government recently committed Canada to ratify the ICSID Convention.
Israeli investors seek damages from Hungary in international arbitration court
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), in Washington, DC, will hear a case by Israeli investors seeking more than 100 billion forints (EUR 337m) in damages from the state of Hungary because of a failed casino investment, daily Magyar Nemzet said on its website on Saturday.
CETA is more about corporate rights than free trade
Since announcing the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) two weeks ago Harper’s Conservatives have repeatedly labelled those questioning the deal as “anti-trade”. But this Canada-European Union accord is one part trade and four parts ‘corporate bill of rights’.