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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)

S2B analysis on ISDS and CETA
S2B | 21-Jan-2014
Seattle to Brussels Network analysis of the European Commission’s note on “Investment Provisions in the EU-Canada free trade agreement”
Canada , EU , investor-state disputes | ISDS
US firm’s FTA plan to keep mine
The Australian | 17-Jan-2014
An American investor plans to invoke the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement to prevent the NSW government cancelling a coal exploration licence that the Independent Commission Against Corruption said is tainted by corruption and should be expunged.
Australia , investor-state disputes | ISDS , mining , US
Philip Morris, Australia and the fate of Europe’s trade talks
Inside Story | 13-Jan-2014
Australia’s clash with Philip Morris over plain packaging has disrupted trade talks between the United States and Europe, reports James Panichi in Brussels
Australia , EU , investor-state disputes | ISDS , TTIP , US
A Canadian court is allowing Ecuadorians to pursue their long-running pollution suit against Chevron
Public Radio International | 4-Jan-2014
Last month, a judge ruled that the Ecuadorians can pursue their case against Chevron in Canada.
actions | resistance , audio , Ecuador , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US
Tribunal pushes back Ecuador, Chevron hearing
Wall St Journal | 4-Jan-2014
An international arbitration tribunal in The Hague hearing a claim from Chevron Corp. against Ecuador pushed back a scheduled hearing to Feb. 7 from Jan. 20 and called on both parties to meet in Washington on Jan. 20 instead.
Ecuador , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US
Indigenous groups win right to seize Chevron’s Canadian sssets over $18 billion in Amazon pollution
Democracy Now | 28-Dec-2013
A court in Canada has ruled Ecuadorean farmers and fishermen can try to seize the assets of oil giant Chevron based on a 2011 decision in an Ecuadorean court found it liable for nearly three decades of soil and water pollution near oil wells, and said it had ruined the health and livelihoods of people living in nearby areas of the Amazon rainforest.
Canada , Ecuador , environment , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US
El Tratado Transatlántico/ Un tifón amenaza a Europa
Le Monde Diplomatique | 20-Dec-2013
Iniciadas en 2008, las discusiones sobre el acuerdo de libre comercio entre Canadá y la Unión Europea culminaron el pasado 18 de octubre. Un buen presagio para Estados Unidos, que espera concluir una asociación de este tipo con el Viejo Continente. Proyecto que, de concretarse, someterá a los Estados a las normas del liberalismo.
EU , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US
La democracia en grave peligro por el Tratado de Libre Comercio entre la Unión Europea y Estados Unidos
Amigos de la Tierra | 19-Dec-2013
Amigos de la Tierra alerta de que los inversores podrían tener más poder que gobiernos e instituciones democráticamente elegidos.
environment , EU , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US
Is ICSID really good for the Canadian taxpayer?
| 26-Nov-2013
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.
Canada , ICSID , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS
Ecuador high court upholds Chevron verdict, halves fine
Reuters | 13-Nov-2013
Ecuador’s highest court upheld a verdict that US oil company Chevron Corp is responsible for pollution in an Amazon rainforest, but halved the fine imposed in a previous trial to $9.5 billion, a decision the company dismissed as illegitimate.
Ecuador , energy , environment , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US