health
Already, Mexico’s progressive reforms have made it an ISDS target. First Majestic, a Canadian silver mining company has been threatening Mexico for the last few years, under NAFTA’s Chapter 11.
For Mexican workers, farmers, and the poor, the pandemic and the new treaty replacing NAFTA are a devastating one-two punch.
Corporations are busy weaponising obscure legal instruments to sue government for their actions to save lives and jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
Amidst the global risk of ISDS claims, it is incumbent to shed light on Bangladesh’s BIT structure and its feasibility to confront ISDS claims in the backdrop of Covid-19 regulatory space.
Countries could be facing a wave of cases from transnational corporations suing governments over actions taken to respond to the Covid pandemic using a system known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. Some 630 organisations from across the world, representing hundreds of millions of people, are calling on governments in an open letter to urgently take action to shut down this threat.
The Transpacific Partnership Agreement involves investor - state dispute settlement clauses, which large companies may use ISDS to sue governments for actions they took to stop the spread of the virus.
Without real protection for the NHS in any future trade agreement, we can only see bad news for patients, taxpayers and Health Boards around the country.
To get out of the crisis exacerbated by Covid-19: more than a hundred organizations and networks in the Arab region are launching a campaign for debt cancellation and getting rid of "free trade" agreements.
We urge you to take immediate action to ensure that the duty of governments to regulate in the public interest is safeguarded and put beyond the scope of ISDS claims.
Even if the pandemic continues into 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area will move ahead, a top official says.
Arbitration cases due to COVID emergency measures would exacerbate the challenges that public budgets are already facing due to the need for stimulus measures and the difficulty in collecting government revenue.
We call for a moratorium on investor-state arbitration cases and clarity of legal principles to ensure that governments have the policy space to protect their citizenry and combat the epidemic.
Wealthy corporations may use trade courts to keep public health measures from cutting into their profits.
Governments worldwide need the policy space now to issue economic support packages and protect their public health systems, without worrying that their budgets could face even more strain from an all-consuming wave of arbitration.
As tech giants emerge as the undisputed winners of the Covid-19 crisis, they continue to use free trade agreements to protect themselves from regulation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led States to adopt various public health measures that adversely affect foreign investors and exacerbate broader economic issues. In this climate, there is significant potential for disputes under the ECT.
As governments take action to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent economic collapse, they could face multi-million dollar lawsuits.
Research claims top law firms are preparing to ‘cash in’ on the pandemic by helping corporations sue states for measures that have impaired profits.
The UK government is preparing to offer increased access to the UK market for US agriculture exports and possibly lower the bar on environmental and health standards.
The union and its allies also asked the government not to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as they view that the restriction of rights to access medicine under the deal would put the country’s public health system in danger.
