ISDS Case Map
South Africa
The Protection of Investment Act affords foreign investors no protections beyond domestic law, and pointedly disavows investor-state international arbitration. The SADC Protocol was also amended by the SADC Summit of heads of state and government.
So-called SPS – Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary – issues identified as the main culprit. "Sometimes ostensible SPS issues were in fact disguised trade protectionism," said South Africa Trade Minister.
The Revised Mining Charter 2017 could, in respect of certain provisions thereto, result in BIT guarantees for qualifying foreign investors being infringed.
The Trump Administration has signalled its impatience to replace the AGOA preferential trade deal with Africa with normal two-way free trade agreements.
Nations agree in principle to implement interim arrangement based on existing EU partnership deal.
Plans to establish a single market for the 26 African countries in the Eastern and Southern African region – known as the tripartite free trade area (TFTA) – could be overly ambitious.
Since 2012, South Africa, dissatisfied with its bilateral investment treaties (BITs), has either been terminating or non-renewing several of these.
The European Commission has expressed concern after hundreds of people protested in Pretoria, South Africa, against EU poultry dumping that has forced profit-hit chicken processors to cut jobs.
South Africa’s poultry industry says it is on the brink of collapse due to hotly-denied accusations that the European Union is dumping cheap chicken in the country in a dispute over free trade.
The Protection of Investment Act 22 of 2015 (the Investment Act) aims to ultimately replace South Africa’s BITs.
