Prosedur dan Efektifitas Mekanisme Penyelesaian Sengketa Perdagangan dan Investasi Dalam ASEAN

Trade and investment play an important role in the practice of relations between countries in the prospective economic cooperation efforts to increase the economic growth of each country. In this regard, ASEAN also has legal instruments that regulate transactions and investments among other countries. In the trade regime, ASEAN has several agreements such as the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement, ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement, ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services, and so on. Meanwhile in the investment regime, ASEAN has the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement. One of the important components in a Regional Trade Agreement is the clause of a legally binding dispute settlement mechanism. In the trade regime, the system and mechanism of the dispute resolution procedures are separated from other trade agreements, the ASEAN Protocol on the Enhanced Dispute Resolution Mechanism. Meanwhile in the Investment regime, the system and mechanism of the dispute resolution procedure are regulated in the same agreement in the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement. This article will describe the procedural mechanism for the dispute resolution framework of the trade and investment regime in ASEAN, as well as focus on each dispute resolution system with the preferences of each participating country, with differences in the use of the dispute system in the WTO.

Germany’s coalition faces division on several fronts

Significance The three parties successfully negotiated a coalition agreement with a strong emphasis on modernising Germany’s economy. Throughout the negotiations, the parties presented a public image of stability and harmony, yet several divisive issues will test the new government's stability and effectiveness. Impacts The composition of the new government will make it harder for Berlin to win approval for the EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement. Chancellor Olaf Scholz will seek to prioritise more unity at the EU level when it comes to foreign policy decision-making. The spread of the Omicron variant will slow economic recovery and potentially delay the transition to a greener economy.

Legal Characteristics of the Hunting Agreement

The article considers the legal characteristics of the hunting agreement. The author emphasized the legal features of the hunting agreement by the analysis of the doctrine and norms of natural resource legislation: it is the object of complex regulation of various branches of law; this agreement has a special subject – measures for the conservation of hunting resources and their habitat and the creation of hunting infrastructure; the specifics of determining the terms of the hunting agreement and the procedure for its conclusion are established by mandatory norms; this agreement has a special subject composition; a hunting agreement is an investment agreement due to the presence of special qualifying features (an investment, an object of investment activity, a transaction for investing in an object of investment activity).

China will continue Greek investments despite pushback

Significance Unionised workers have staged several industrial actions against the port’s Chinese owners, the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO). The recent death of an employee has raised again concerns about working conditions. There are concerns more widely about the Chinese giant’s impact on the local business and marine environments, and whether it honours its agreements. Impacts The current centre-right government will have less cordial relations with China than its left-wing predecessor. Amid its disputes with COSCO over its investment agreement, Athens will strive to portray Greece as a safe place for foreign investors. COSCO will endeavour to improve its image locally by proclaiming environmental initiatives and supporting charities.

Implement the ECFA: Prospects of a Bilateral Investment Agreement between Mainland China and Taiwan

After Ma Yingjeou’s re-election in 2012, Mainland China and Taiwan will continue cooperation in economic fields. Concluding a Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA) will be a priority. Based on the similarities of current laws and the investment protection agreements concluded by Mainland and Taiwan with other countries respectively, Mainland China and Taiwan can possibility agree upon major provisions of a BIA. Solutions are provided to both macro and micro challenges against a successful BIA.

High-Income Developing Countries, FDI Outflows and the International Investment Agreement Regime

The international investment agreement regime (IIA Regime) is composed of thousands of IIAs and a system of investor–state dispute settlement. Historically, high-income developing countries (HIDCs) were part of the global South and thus ‘hosts’ of foreign direct investment (FDI). Increasingly, however, these countries have become ‘home’ to investors who are hosted and exposed to political risk abroad. Representing both home and host country interests simultaneously, how do HIDCs balance these crosscutting pressures? We argue that as the position of an HIDC shifts from mostly a recipient towards a sender of significant amounts of FDI, it will be more willing to provide protection to foreign investors at the expense of state regulatory space in its IIAs, thereby increasing its exposure to the IIA Regime. Employing an original data set that measures this exposure for sixty-four HIDCs over six decades, we first show that the degree of HIDC exposure to the IIA Regime varies a great deal. Using a general method of moments (GMM) analysis and controlling for a host of confounding factors, we demonstrate that, indeed, higher levels of FDI outflows as a share of the national economy result in greater exposure to the IIA Regime.

Gap between France’s Macron and Le Pen is narrowing

Significance Nevertheless, Le Pen remains the most serious threat to President Emmanuel Macron's hopes for re-election in 2022. She stands above him in some national polls, reflecting her success in broadening RN’s appeal, widespread anti-establishment sentiment and Macron’s unpopularity and mixed record on COVID-19. Impacts To revive the economy, Macron will likely campaign for reform of EU fiscal rules to enable greater levels of state investment. Further terrorist attacks or assaults on police would increase the salience of immigration and law and order ahead of the 2022 election. Ahead of the election, Macron will be reluctant to show public support for the EU-China investment agreement.

Scaling the Great Wall: The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and Market Access

The European Union and China have been negotiating an investment agreement with a comprehensive scope including the improvement of market access conditions for investors. Albeit a pressing issue, progress has been plagued with challenges. The problems regarding access especially to Chinese markets can be overcome by approaching the issue from the viewpoint of a key legal provision, namely (pre-establishment) national treatment, which must be incorporated into the treaty in a careful and balanced, yet ambitious manner. The present article examines how this provision can be formulated in investment treaties to augment the law governing market access. It therefore reviews the past investment law practices involving each party and establishes the legal obstacles for the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, and possible solutions. It concludes that while older investment agreements can serve as building blocks for the agreement, they also present legal issues ranging from interpretative problems to questions about domestic reforms.

Normative Intersections of Trade, Investment and Sustainability Measures

This chapter briefly discusses the three ‘key points of tension’ or normative effects identified between the demands of trade and investment agreements that focus mainly on economic growth, and regulations for the environmental and social development, including the efforts of States to comply with specific trade and investment obligations in other international treaties. These points of tension are described and illustrated with interesting examples. The first tension involves the concern that new trade liberalization obligations of non-discrimination and most-favoured nation (MFN) treatment and new investment liberalization obligations, in certain specific sectors, could prevent States from effectively enacting trade-related measures to prevent unsustainable development. A second tension involves concerns that through a new trade and investment agreement, there will be increased incentives for trade or investment-led economic growth, which can exacerbate environmental and social problems that already exist at the domestic level due to lack of enforcement of the law. The third tension involves concerns that application of trade or investment rules for liberalization will inadvertently support unsustainable growth in obsolete technologies and sectors.