ISDS Case Map
South Africa
South Africa last week cancelled its bilateral investment treaty with Germany, one of its most important trading partners, amid protests by German businesses.
SOUTH Africa is scrambling to convince Germany and its other European trade partners that its unilateral scrapping of bilateral investment treaties is not a risk to their investments in South Africa.
This is the second BIT terminated as part of South Africa’s planned review of its investment treaties
Namibia’s principled refusal to get bullied into an agreement against what it considered its own best interests has served as an example for other countries originally more willing to give in to the pressure exerted by EU
"South Africa has confronted a dilemma in which it was no longer possible to renegotiate investment treaties with individual EU member states and if we did not move towards termination, the existing treaties would be automatically extended for another 10 years," writes Trade Minister Rob Davies.
If a Free Trade Area were negotiated between Africa's two largest economies, South Africa and Nigeria, it would have a powerful effect across the sub-continent. However, there are concerns that such an FTA would give one-sided benefits to the South Africans.
Dispute settlements between investors and states saw 62 new cases initiated last year, the highest number of known treaty-based disputes filed in a year, according to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) in March.
The South African Poultry Association, which has applied to the International Trade Administration Commission for a general tariff increase against chicken imports, also plans to seek protection against imports from the European Union.
A French company’s attempt to claim "rooibos" as its own intellectual property has galvanised the South African government into action to protect the term under its talks with Brussels over the EU-South Africa EPA.
One of the most contentious issues dealt with in a draft new Foreign Investment Bill, which the South African Department of Trade and Industry will present to an interministerial committee in the next few months, will deal with how the South African government will compensate foreign investors in the event of expropriation, deputy director-general of international trade Xavier Carim said on Friday.
