bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

investment | BITs

Europe’s China gambit
10-Apr-2021 Project Syndicate
Trade and investment agreements cannot transform China into a Western-style market economy or turn it into a democracy.
Rethinking investment law from the ground up: extractivism, human rights, and investment treaties
9-Apr-2021 IISD
For many people affected by resource extraction, it is the prevailing legal regime that dis-embeds and disintegrates, because investment treaties can protect ventures that upend their lives with little scope for voice or redress.
From gunboats to treaties: Who wrote the rules of globalisation?
8-Apr-2021 Investment Monitor
From colonisation to investor-state dispute settlements, rich countries have sought to exploit and influence their poorer counterparts for centuries, but how did globalisation in its current form come to be?
UAE and Israel move closer to tax treaty that will help boost foreign investments
8-Apr-2021 The National
A free trade agreement and double taxation treaty are among several frameworks being worked on by the UAE and Israel to increase trade and investments flows between the two nations after they normalised relations last year.
A brief history of globalisation
6-Apr-2021 Investment Monitor
Investment treaties largely replaced colonial gunboats as a way to continue to exploit the resources of foreign countries.
Federal cabinet defers BIT strategy
5-Apr-2021 Business Recorder
The federal cabinet said to have deferred bilateral investment treaty (BIT) strategy for Pakistan proposed by the Board of Investment (BOI) to draw a roadmap for the future bilateral investment treaties.
Sovereign states on a leash
1-Apr-2021 The Mint
The overreach on display in the aggressive use of ISDS lawsuits by multinational corporations is just one part of a broader trend in recent decades in which the ability of states to regulate their economies in their own interests.
Govt to reopen negotiations on Bilateral Investment Treaty with Japan
1-Apr-2021 Ghana Web
The government of Ghana has expressed its interest in concluding the negotiations with Japan on the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), which has been pending since April 2014.
EU-China trade deal is a Trojan Horse sellout
30-Mar-2021 Australian Financial Review
The short-sighted German-driven agreement betrays the European project and poses a major economic and political problem for the rest of the West.
Seoul, Moscow agree to hasten free trade talks on services, investment - Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong
25-Mar-2021 UrduPoint
Russia and South Korea have agreed to speed up the talks about a free trade deal covering services and investment, South Korean Foreign Minister said.
Most of BITs to be scrapped
25-Mar-2021 Business Recorder
Pakistan has reportedly decided to scrap most of its existing Bilateral Investment Treaties as these pacts are shrinking the government’s policy space with respect to adopting measures of public interest.
EU-ESA EPA: Investment liberalisation and trade in services (EU proposal, Jan 2021)
23-Mar-2021 European Commission
US and Canada follow EU and UK in sanctioning Chinese officials over Xinjiang
23-Mar-2021 The Guardian
The EU is due shortly to sign a major investment deal with China, but Germany in particular will be concerned that the sanctions may destabilise economic relations with China.
Critics raise alarm over EU-China deal
16-Mar-2021 VOA
An investment deal between China and the European Union restricts Europeans from investing in Chinese media and entertainment companies but does not block Chinese firms from investing in European ones.
China-EU comprehensive agreement on investment: Ineffective in protecting labour rights and acting on environmental justice
15-Mar-2021 Globalization Monitor
Without thinking about environmental action beyond emissions and enacting binding agreements on protecting workers’ rights, China and the EU fail at making meaningful change for both labour and environmental justice.
EU hesitates over investment deal with increasingly authoritarian China
15-Mar-2021 RFI
Beijing and Brussels are trying to finalise what has been described as ’the biggest investment agreement’ in history. But will it ever be ratified?
EU-China BIT: schedules annex (Mar 2021)
12-Mar-2021 European Commission
Four key points from the ratification of the Indonesia-Singapore bilateral investment treaty
12-Mar-2021 The Online Citizen
Besides protection and dispute settlement, the BIT also includes several key changes in terms of application and restriction.
Hong Kong activists urge EU not to ratify new deal with China
11-Mar-2021 The Guardian
Hong Kong democracy activists have warned the EU it must not ratify its planned new investment deal with China at a time when Beijing is tearing up international obligations to the people of Hong Kong.
The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Stuck half-way?
10-Mar-2021 CCSI
The China-EU comprehensive investment agreement (CAI) addresses important issues of market access, regulatory cooperation and sustainable development, but does not include sections on investment protection and ISDS.