North America

Canada and the United States have signed about 180 investment agreements.

They are both party to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico. Sixty-seven disputes were launched under NAFTA.

NAFTA was recently renegotiated and replaced by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that was signed in November 2018 and is yet to enter in force. The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism between the US and Canada, and between Mexico and Canada has been removed – even though it is included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, to which both Mexico and Canada belong. Only limited claims are allowed between the US and Mexico, after exhaustion of local remedies. But the ISDS mechanism has been maintained between the two countries for claims pertaining to Mexico’s oil and gas sector.

The US is also party to the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), with six Central American states. US investors have initiated all 11 known CAFTA disputes.

Canada has an investment treaty with China and is party to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union. CETA includes a revised ISDS mechanism, the investment court system, which has been critiqued for not addressing the core of the problem behind the mechanism.

US investors have extensively used the ISDS mechanism. They have initiated around 180 disputes, over 17% of all known cases, making the US the most frequent home state of investors. The US has never lost an ISDS case.

Canadian investors have initiated about 50 disputes and Canada has been the fourth most frequent target among ‘developed’ states (9th globally), with 29 cases.

Photo: Public Citizen

(April 2020)

The News Review | 19-Aug-2015
The Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), ratified in 2014, is a license to be unfair to Canadians.
The Vancouver Sun | 15-Aug-2015
In his new book Gus Van Harten argues that FIPA shows that Canada can be too eager to compromise its economy, long-term, in the hope of a quick buck now.
Investment Arbitration Reporter | 15-Aug-2015
Following Canada’s loss this March in a NAFTA dispute, Bilcon v. Canada, that decision has prompted a new round of submissions in a separate dispute, Mesa Power Group LLC v. Canada.
Rebelión | 11-Aug-2015
El pasado 24 de julio del 2015 , Costa Rica solicitó poner un término al procedimiento arbitral interpuesto por la empresa minera canadiense Infinito Gold ante el Centro Internacional de Arreglo de Disputas entre Inversionistas Extranjeros y Estados (más conocido como CIADI en español, ICSID en inglés).
El Financiero | 11-Aug-2015
Una empresa canadiense de inversiones inmobiliarias iniciará un arbitraje contra México bajo el TLC. ¿El monto demandado?: 200 millones de dólares.
CCPA | 6-Aug-2015
Canadian investors have exploited a controversial mechanism in international investment treaties to challenge public interest regulations in 24 different countries
CCPA | 5-Aug-2015
The failure of Canadian ISDS policy at home and abroad.
Bloomberg | 4-Aug-2015
A provision in the North American Free Trade Agreement would let the Canadian company TransCanada Corp. recoup some of the $2.4 billion spent on its Keystone XL project
MiningWatch Canadá | 31-Jul-2015
Organizaciones de la sociedad civil reciben con satisfacción el anuncio que Infinito Gold desistirá de su tortuosa intención de construir una mina en Costa Rica a pesar de la clara oposición del pueblo costarricense y los repetidos fallos en su contra.
Mining Weekly | 22-Jul-2015
Gabriel Resources has filed a request for arbitration before the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes against Romania over the Roşia Montană gold/silver project,