Health

The investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions proposed in trade agreements give pharmaceutical corporations the right to sue governments for compensation if domestic laws negatively affect future earnings on their intellectual property or investments, and even if these laws are in accordance with public interests. Better access to medicines or preventing unsafe or ineffective medicines from entering the market could prove problematic.

Major US, Canadian and French pharmaceutical companies have recently challenged pro-public health measures through ISDS disputes brought under ISDS provisions.

Chemical corporations have also used ISDS in numerous occasions to challenge national bans on hazardous substances.

Most well-known cases include:

• Ethyl (US) vs. Canada: following Canada’s ban on the toxic petrol additive MMT, the US producer sued for US$201 million in compensation. In 1998, Canada agreed in a settlement to pay US$13 million and withdrew the ban (NAFTA invoked).

• Philip Morris Asia (Hong Kong) vs. Australia: When Australia introduced plain packaging for all tobacco products in 2011, Philip Morris sued Australia before an arbitral tribunal. In its December 2015 decision, the tribunal dismissed the case, albeit on legal grounds only. Australia spent A$24 million in legal costs but Philip Morris only paid half, leaving the Australian taxpayers to pay the other half. As a consequence of this case, countries ranging from Namibia, Togo to New Zealand decided to wait to introduce their own plain packaging for tobacco products. (Australia-Hong Kong BIT invoked)

• Dow Chemical (US) vs. Canada: the chemical corporation initiated a dispute for losses it alleged were caused by a Quebec provincial ban on lawn pesticides containing the active ingredient 2,4-D, classified as a possible carcinogen and one of the ingredients in Agent Orange, the herbicide widely used during the Vietnam war. In a settlement in 2011, the ban was sustained but Quebec was required to state that “products containing 2,4-D do not pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment provided that the instructions on their label are followed.” (NAFTA invoked.)

Photo: Aqua Mechanical / CC BY 2.0

(March 2020)

TNI | 24-Aug-2020
Latin America’s battle with COVID-19 hampered by investment arbitration cases.
Marianne | 24-Aug-2020
Les cabinets d’avocats d’affaires poussent pour que les multinationales attaquent les États pour leur avoir fait perdre du chiffre d’affaires durant le confinement.
TNI | 20-Aug-2020
América Latina entre la crisis de la pandemia y el arbitraje de inversiones.
SSRN | 20-Aug-2020
Recent jurisdictional decisions suggest that sovereign debt will be subject to bilateral investment treaties for the foreseeable future.
IPS | 18-Aug-2020
Predatory international law firms are encouraging multimillion-dollar investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) lawsuits citing Covid-19 containment, relief and recovery measures.
Biodiversidad en América Latina | 11-Aug-2020
La Internacional de Servicios Públicos, en asociación con la Fundación Friedrich Ebert, está produciendo una serie de cuatro artículos investigando como los tratados de libre comercio, el neoliberalismo y la falta de justicia fiscal socavaron la respuesta sanitaria y socioeconómica de la crisis generada por la pandemia de Covid-19.
South Centre | 11-Aug-2020
COVID-19 can increase liability for countries under international investment treaties. Developing countries face imminent challenges under such treaties.
CMS | 10-Aug-2020
A recent ICSID tribunal has denied an investor’s claim concerning the development of an airport project in Latvia, which may have wider implications for infrastructure projects that may now be under feasibility reviews as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
América Latina Mejor Sin TLC | 10-Aug-2020
La Plataforma América Latina Mejor Sin TLC presenta: «25 años de tratados de libre comercio e inversión en América Latina. Análisis y perspectivas críticas». Un documento necesario para entender la arquitectura jurídica de la impunidad que gobierna desde hace décadas las economías de la región.
Council of Canadians | 13-Jul-2020
Already, Mexico’s progressive reforms have made it an ISDS target. First Majestic, a Canadian silver mining company has been threatening Mexico for the last few years, under NAFTA’s Chapter 11.