By Caroline Ennis I. NAFTA’s Chapter 11 in Context When the U.S. and Canada entered a free trade agreement (“FTA”) in 1989, concerns emerged over the U.S. solidifying power over Canada. The primary concern was that a “hub and spoke” model, featuring the U.S. as the hub under separate bilateral agreements with Canada and Mexico,…
Category: Trade Agreement
ISDS at a Crossroads: Diverging Paths in the U.S. and U.K.
By Kaitlyn Welsh Introduction The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) is the leading institution administering Investor-State Dispute Settlement (“ISDS”) cases, handling about 70% of all international investment disputes. The objective of ISDS is to provide foreign investors of host states with a neutral forum to resolve such disputes as opposed to reliance…
The Tightrope Walk of FTAs: Balancing the Relationship Between Foreign Investments and Public Interests
By: Savannah Kelly, Senior Staffer Investors have the right to protect their investments just as host states have the right to protect public interests–otherwise recognized as public interest regulation. The balance between the rights of investors and that of states skews off-kilter when arbitral proceedings whittle away or strip entirely the regulatory autonomy of states….
An Overview of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement
The European Union-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (EUSFTA), a bilaterally beneficial trade agreement, was finally implemented on November 20, 2019, after ten years of negotiations. Talks began in 2009, with the Good and Services negotiations and investment protection negotiations ending in 2012 and 2014, respectively. EUSFTA was signed in October 2018, and approved by the European…
