WHAT IS (ISDS) - Investor-State Dispute Settlement?

[Oscar]

WHAT IS (ISDS) INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT?

[ http://canadians.org/sites/default/file ... e-0216.pdf ]

Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions are included in the new wave of trade deals involving the EU, Canada and the United States – the most prominent being the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)

While the exact form and structure of the ISDS proposals might differ slightly from one agreement to the other, they all give foreign investors extremely broad rights and empower them to ask arbitration tribunals not accountable to any domestic legal system to order host governments to pay financial compensation for regulations and laws that they think get in the way of those rights.

ISDS is a system that provides foreign investors with VIP treatment over the rest of society. Unlike domestic investors, foreign investors can bypass the national legal system and bring their claims straight to tribunals staffed by corporate lawyers with a financial interest in keeping the system alive (since they are paid for each case).

ISDS is a one-way street. Foreign investors are granted rights without any obligation, such as respect for environmental, social, health and safety or other standards. Citizens abused by the activities of fossil fuel corporations, mining companies, banks, food multinationals or chemical producers do not have access to the same rights in cases where multinational companies are responsible for human rights violations or environmental degradation.

Finally, ISDS is dangerous because the mere threat of potential claims can have a chilling effect on governments that are keen to enact ambitious public interest regulations – because of the potential burden of future claims on public budgets.