[bestbits] FW: LDC's Turning Backs on Multistakeholder Trade Agreements

Fri Apr 11 09:11:00 EDT 2014

no equivalence at all
I have been working directly with trade agreements, as Nick has ....and
everything there is secret, non-transparent ..etc...
 a mistake to say that "old style lobby" is equivalent to
multi-stakeholderism...
no "equal footing" on TPP or Trans-Atlantic ..makes me laugh actually
refer to BestBits on statement on process
http://bestbits.net/netmundial-roadmap/

On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 6:07 AM, McTim <mctimconsulting at gmail.com> wrote:

> <cc list trimmed>
>
> Nick,
>
> thanks for making this point, which I had intended to make as well.
> There is absolutley no equivalence here!
>
> rgds,
>
> McTim
>
> On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 1:24 AM, Nick Ashton-Hart <nashton at consensus.pro>
> wrote:
> > I'm sorry but to suggest BITS are multi stakeholder is just fundamentally
> > incorrect. Love them or hate them, they are entirely different to what we
> > talk about vis a vis multi stakeholder processes in Internet policy.
> >
> > On 11 April 2014 02:05:25 "michael gurstein" <gurstein at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> These "Investor Treaties" are the trade equivalent of multistakeholder
> >> governance processes in that they give the private sector equal rights
> with
> >> governments in determining the contents of sectoral trade agreements.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> M
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> From: sid-l at googlegroups.com [mailto:sid-l at googlegroups.com] On Behalf
> Of
> >> Sid Shniad
> >> Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2014 12:17 PM
> >> To: undisclosed-recipients:
> >> Subject: Investor Treaties in Trouble
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/?u=fa9cf38799136b5660f367ba6&id=3990f710bb&e=3f7d5d14f1
> >>
> >> SOUTHNEWS          No. 52, 10 April 2014
> >>
> >> SOUTHNEWS is a service of the South Centre to provide information and
> news
> >> on topical issues from a South perspective.
> >> Visit the South Centre's website: www.southcentre.int.
> >>
> >> Investor Treaties in Trouble
> >>
> >> By Martin Khor
> >>
> >> The tide is turning against investment treaties and free trade
> agreements
> >> that contain the controversial investor-state dispute system, as
> countries
> >> like Indonesia and Germany take action on this.
> >>
> >> The tide is turning against investment treaties that allow foreign
> >> investors to take up cases against host governments and claim
> compensation
> >> of up to billions of dollars.
> >>
> >> Indonesia has given notice to it will terminate its bilateral investment
> >> treaty (BIT) with the Netherlands, according to a statement issued by
> the
> >> Dutch Embassy in Jakarta last week.
> >>
> >> "The Indonesian Government has also mentioned it intends to terminate
> all
> >> of its 67 bilateral investment treaties", according to the same
> statement.
> >>
> >> The Dutch statement has not been confirmed by Indonesia.  But if this is
> >> correct, Indonesia joins South Africa, which last year announced it is
> >> ending all its BITS.
> >>
> >> Several other countries are also reviewing their investment treaties.
> >> This is prompted by increasing numbers of cases being brought against
> >> governments by foreign companies who claim that changes in government
> >> policies or contracts affect their future profits.
> >>
> >> Many countries have been asked to pay large compensations to companies
> >> under the treaties.  The biggest claim was against Ecuador, which has to
> >> compensate an American oil company US$ 2.3 billion for cancelling a
> >> contract.
> >>
> >> The system empowering investors to sue governments in an international
> >> tribunal, thus bypassing national laws and courts, is a subject of
> >> controversy in Malaysia because it is part of the Trans-Pacific
> Partnership
> >> Agreement (TPPA) which the country is negotiating with 11 other
> countries.
> >>
> >> The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system is contained in free
> >> trade agreements (especially those involving the United States) and
> also in
> >> BITS which countries sign among themselves to protect foreign investors'
> >> rights.
> >>
> >> When these treaties containing ISDS were signed, many countries did not
> >> know they were opening themselves to legal cases that foreign investors
> can
> >> take up under loosely worded provisions that allow them to win cases
> where
> >> they claim they have not been treated fairly or that there expected
> revenues
> >> have been expropriated.
> >>
> >> Indonesia and South Africa are among many countries that faced such
> cases.
> >> The Indonesian government has been taken to the ICSID tribunal based in
> >> Washington by a British company, Churchill Mining, which claimed the
> >> government violated the UK-Indonesia BIT when its contract with a local
> >> government in East Kalimantan was cancelled.
> >>
> >> Reports indicate the company is claiming compensation of US$ 1 billion
> to
> >> US$ 2 billion in losses.
> >>
> >> This and other cases taken against Indonesia prompted the government to
> >> review whether it should retain its many BITS.
> >>
> >> South Africa had also been sued by a British mining company which
> claimed
> >> losses after the government introduced policies to boost the economic
> >> capacity of the blacks to redress apartheid policies.
> >>
> >> India is also reviewing its BITS, after many companies filed cases after
> >> the Supreme Court cancelled their 2G mobile communications licenses in
> the
> >> wake of a high-profile corruption scandal linked to the granting of the
> >> licenses.
> >>
> >> But it is not only developing countries that are getting disillusioned
> by
> >> the ISDS.  Europe is getting cold feet over the investor-state dispute
> >> mechanism in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)
> it is
> >> negotiating with the US, similar to the mechanism in the TPPA.
> >>
> >> Several weeks ago, Germany told the European Commission that the TTIP
> must
> >> not have the investor-state dispute mechanism.
> >>
> >> Brigitte Zypries, an economy minister, told the German parliament that
> >> Berlin was determined to exclude arbitration rights from the TTIP deal,
> >> according to the Financial Times.
> >>
> >> "From the perspective of the [German] federal government, US investors
> in
> >> the EU have sufficient legal protection in the national courts," she
> said.
> >>
> >> The French trade minister had earlier voiced opposition to ISDS, while a
> >> report commissioned by the United Kingdom government also pointed out
> >> problems with the mechanism.
> >>
> >> The European disillusionment has two causes.  ISDS cases are also
> >> affecting the countries.
> >>
> >> Germany has been taken to ICSID by a Swedish company Vattenfall which
> >> claimed it suffered over a billion euros in losses resulting from the
> >> government's decision to phase out nuclear power after the Fukushima
> >> disaster.
> >>
> >> And the European public is getting upset over the investment system.
>  Two
> >> European organisations last year published a report showing how the
> >> international investment arbitration system is monopolised by a few big
> law
> >> firms, how the tribunals are riddled with conflicts of interest and the
> >> arbitrary nature of tribunal decisions.
> >>
> >> That report caused shockwaves not only in the civil society but also
> among
> >> European policy makers.
> >>
> >> In January, the European Commission suspended negotiations with the US
> on
> >> the ISDS provisions in the TTIP, and announced it would hold 90 days of
> >> consultations with the public over the issue.
> >>
> >> In Australia, the previous government decided it would not have an ISDS
> >> clause in its future FTAs and BITS, following a case taken against it by
> >> Philip Morris International which claimed loss of profits because of
> laws
> >> requiring only plain packaging on cigarette boxes.
> >>
> >> In Malaysia, the ISDS is one of the major controversial issues relating
> to
> >> the TPPA.  Many business, professional and public-interest groups want
> the
> >> government to exclude the ISDS as a "red line" in the TPPA negotiations.
> >>
> >> Prime Minister Dato' Sri Najib Tun Razak had also mentioned investment
> >> policy and ISDS as one of the issues (the others being government
> >> procurement and state owned enterprises) in the TTPA that may impinge on
> >> national sovereignty, when he was at the APEC Summit and TPPA Summit in
> >> Indonesia last year.
> >>
> >> So far the United States has stuck to its position that ISDS has to be
> >> part of the TPPA and TTIP.  However if the emerging European opposition
> >> affects the TTIP negotiations, it could affect the TPPA as this would
> >> strengthen the position of those opposed to ISDS.
> >>
> >> Meanwhile, we can also expect more countries to review their BITS.
> >> Developing countries seeking to end their bilateral agreements with
> European
> >> countries can point to the fact that more and more European countries
> are
> >> themselves having second thoughts about the ISDS embedded in these
> >> agreements.
> >>
> >>
> >> Author: Martin Khor is the Executive Director of the South Centre.
> >> Contact: director at southcentre.int.
> >> To view other articles in SouthNews, please click here.
> >>
> >> For more information, please contact Vicente Paolo Yu of the South
> Centre:
> >> Email yu at southcentre.int, or telephone +41 22 791 80 50.
> >>
> >> --
> >>
> >> ---
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> >
> >
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-- 
*Carolina Rossini*
*Project Director, Latin America Resource Center*
Open Technology Institute
*New America Foundation*
//
http://carolinarossini.net/
+ 1 6176979389
*carolina.rossini at gmail.com*
skype: carolrossini
@carolinarossini
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