Ecuador, BRICS Moving Away From International Investment Dispute Regime, Paper Says

As part of a series of publications on investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement, a developing country multilateral organisation released a policy brief focusing on Ecuador’s experience and action against the current dispute settlement system.

The policy brief [pdf] is authored by Andres Arauz, now the Ecuadoran Minister of Knowledge and Human Talent, and published by the Geneva-based South Centre. It lays out the historical and geopolitical context of Ecuador’s decisions on bilateral investment treaties and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) procedures, and the current alternatives pursued by the Ecuadorian government.

Ecuadoran President Correa established in 2013 a joint government/civil society commission to study and audit its bilateral investment treaties and the international investment arbitration system, according to the policy brief.

According to the brief, some BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) “are moving away from the international investment arbitration regime.”

Such is the case of Brazil, which according to the brief, “has not ratified any treaties to date and is not a part of ICSID [International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes],” India, which “is reviewing all of its treaties and has signalled that it will withdraw from them, and South Africa, which “is withdrawing from all of these treaties and is not part of ICSID.”

The brief also remarks that Bolivia withdrew from all its treaties and from ICSID, and South America is establishing its own investment dispute settlement forum. Ecuador, according to the brief, is “leading the establishment of an international global South observatory of transnational investment disputes, in partnership with the South Centre, which hopes to share strategic information for legal defence and motivate collective action regarding the investment regime.”

Last month the South Centre published a policy brief on Argentina’s experience with ISDS (IPW, Bilateral/Regional Negotiations, 21 July 2015).

Image Credits: Flickr – Torl Rector