Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/11/2024
8:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Categories
What is ISDS, Investor-State Dispute Settlement?
To view the recording on YouTube, click here
ISDS is a mechanism included in many trade and investment agreements to settle disputes. Settling these investor disputes relies on arbitration rather than public courts. Under agreements which include ISDS mechanisms, a company from one signatory state investing in another signatory state can argue that new laws or regulations could negatively affect its expected profits or investment potential, and seek compensation in a binding arbitration tribunal. Corporations typically seek compensation which may amount to millions or billions of US dollars.
Stephanie Camarillo is the Research Director for Global Trade Watch, providing in-depth information on an array of international trade issues. Before joining Public Citizen, she worked as an international arbitration and trade attorney
Manuel Perez-Rocha
Manuel Pérez-Rocha is an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and an Associate of the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Amsterdam. He is a Mexican national who has led efforts to promote just and sustainable alternative approaches to trade and investment agreements for two decades. Prior to working for IPS’ Global Economy Program, he worked with the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) and continues to be a member of that coalition’s executive committee. He also worked for the Make Trade Fair campaign of Oxfam International.
Manuel studied International Relations at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), has a diploma on European Studies from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM) and holds a M.A. on Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, Netherlands. Some of his last publications include op-eds in The Nation and The New York Times.
Stuart Trew
Stuart Trew is the Director of the Trade and Investment Research Project at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, a progressive think-tank based in Ottawa, Canada. He has written numerous book chapters and articles on the interactions of trade rules and public interest regulations and policy, and co-edited (with Scott Sinclair) the 2016 anthology, The TPP and Canada: A Citizen’s Guide. He is currently researching a report (again with Scott Sinclair) on the NAFTA record of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases, with a focus on the three-year “legacy” period following the ratification of the USMCA.