Legitimacy of Investor-State Arbitration

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-178
Author(s):  
Jamal Seifi
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Bilateral Investment Treaties ◽  
Vital Importance ◽  
Social Legitimacy ◽  
Investment Arbitration ◽  
The Cold War

Due to insufficient concretization of international norms, it is of vital importance to have broadly representative international courts and tribunals. Since the end of the Cold War, the most significant divisions among States are those between developing and developed countries, whose economic and other interests differ greatly. In this context, any normative or social legitimacy debate inevitably has a development focus. For example, investment arbitration awards have been found to be correlated with arbitrators’ policy preferences whereby the development bias was most prominent. Moreover, the predominantly commercial background and outlook of investment arbitrators has resulted in expansionist trends in interpreting the jurisdictional and substantive protection provisions of the Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), undermining the legitimacy of the investment arbitration system. The recent North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) reform reinforces the old perception that the institution of investment arbitration is predominantly designed to address north-south disputes.

Multilateralism compromised: the mysterious origins of GATT Article XXIV

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
KERRY CHASE
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Cold War ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Free Trade Area ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Area ◽  
Policy Ideas ◽  
The Us

The GATT treaty's loophole for free trade areas in Article XXIV has puzzled and deceived prominent scholars, who trace its postwar origins to US aspirations to promote European integration and efforts to persuade developing countries to endorse the Havana Charter. Drawing from archival records, this article shows that in fact US policymakers crafted the controversial provisions of Article XXIV to accommodate a trade treaty they had secretly reached with Canada. As a result, the free trade area exemption was embedded in the GATT–WTO regime, even though neither the Havana Charter nor the US–Canada free trade agreement was ever ratified. Theoretically, the case is an important example of how Cold War exigencies altered the policy ideas of US officials.

The North American Free Trade Agreement

2020 ◽  
pp. 178-186
Author(s):  
Frank Schimmelfennig ◽  
Thomas Winzen ◽  
Tobias Lenz ◽  
Jofre Rocabert ◽  
Loriana Crasnic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
North American ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
The North ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter presents a case study of the NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA is a case of ‘non-parliamentarization’ in a democratic, albeit task-specific organization with low authority, and narrow scope created after a momentous governance success—the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union—in a regional environment without relevant examples of international parliamentary institutions (IPIs). NAFTA illustrates that, absent of certain organizational characteristics that make IPIs a convincing strategy, even intense contestation focuses on other concerns—NAFTA’s narrow trade policy priorities in this case. The analysis also shows that democracy alone does not suffice to trigger the creation of IPIs.

The Changing Nature of US-Mexican Relations

1997 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 137-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Kaufman Purcell
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Bilateral Relations ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Cold War

The past few decades have seen profound changes in the bilateral relationship between the United States and Mexico. The interests of the two countries, which often diverged during the Cold War years, increasingly began to converge following collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. With this convergence, bilateral relations seemed to enter a more cooperative stage. The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993 was deemed a fitting symbol of the new, mutually beneficial relationship between the two countries.

scholarly journals The trade and economic cooperation between Ukraine and Canada in the context of the free trade agreement

2020 ◽  
pp. 144-155
Author(s):  
Nadiia Kryvenko
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Free Trade Agreement ◽  
Bilateral Trade ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
Trade Agreements ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Economic Cooperation ◽  
The World

Introduction. Deepening of trade and economic cooperation between the countries remains one of driving forces for their economic development, especially in the context of globalization. Thus, developed countries are the largest exporters and importers in the world market, and special attention is paid to the sale of finished products. The conclusion of regional trade agreements between countries promote development of trade , as trade policy is one of the main issues in them, they take into account the degree of processing of products, the terms of liberalization, quotas and others. Ukraine is also trying to diversifу export and increase its volume as a result of the conclusion of Free Trade Agreements, in particular with Canada. Purpose. Explore the trade and economic relations between Ukraine and Canada, taking into account the Free Trade Agreement and determine the complementarity of relations of countries. Methods. The methods of theoretical generalization, analysis, economic-mathematical modeling, comparison and etc. were used in the work. Results. The artticle emphasizes growth of RTA in the world between countries of different continents and levels of economic development, in particular for example Ukraine and Canada. The development of cooperation between these countries through the study of legal documents concluded by them and the dynamics of bilateral trade is considered. The conclusion of RTA by Canada and Ukraine with a number of other countries is noted, with the selection of the most influential ones, in particular NAFTA and USMCA. The commodity diversification of Canada’s exports and imports, bilateral trade with Ukraine are analyzed, and its increase is observed both in general and in the last years after the conclusion of the Agreement, trade in agrarian products is highlighted. The resulting indicators of trade development between the countries were also calculated, the level of complementarity of the commodity structure of foreign trade of Ukraine and Canada was determined, which indicates the prospects for the development of cooperation between them. The issues of liberalization in the context of the concluded Free Trade Agreement, export requirements are considered, the possible consequences for Ukraine as a result of the concluded Agreement and measures to promote the deepening of trade are presented. Discussion. In the future, we should focus on the research of trade of individual sectors of the economy, commodity diversification of exports and ways of its deepening, the competitiveness of products, increase total export of Canada and Ukraine.

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