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natural resources

NAFTA panel orders rethink on softwood lumber duties
8-May-2024 BIV
B.C. forests minister says NAFTA panel ruling positive, but doesn’t end softwood lumber dispute.
Trade agreements’ influence on the global mineral transition in critical raw materials
22-Mar-2024 Bilaterals.org
Trade agreements shape the global minerals transition by determining access to essential raw materials, influencing investment decisions, and enforcing environmental and social regulations. This article examines the underlying agenda of trade agreements in shaping the global minerals transition, including how they affect the distribution of benefits and risks.
Billion-dollar exposure: Investor-state dispute settlement in Mozambique’s fossil fuel sector
23-Feb-2024 Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Mozambique faces a substantial economic risk due to its exposure to investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) claims by foreign investors in its coal, oil, and gas sectors. The investment protections in the country’s international investment agreements and contracts, combined with ISDS, expose Mozambique to multi-billion-dollar financial liabilities.
Tanzania’s attempt to strike out Indiana’s compensation fails to score
12-Feb-2024 Stockhead
Indiana Resources is closer to recovering its historical sunk investment for the unlawful expropriation of the Ntaka Hill nickel sulphide project after the ICSID struck out most of Tanzania’s grounds for requesting the annulment of the award.
BC, Ottawa officials applaud decision on US softwood lumber duties
6-Oct-2023 CBC
Officials in Ottawa and British Columbia have welcomed a ruling under the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying it found elements of the United States’ calculation of softwood lumber duties are inconsistent with that country’s own law.
Indonesia pledges more investments in Tanzania
11-Sep-2023 AllAfrica
Indonesia has pledged to increase investments in Tanzania, including in management of the Mnazi Bay gas block by its state-owned company.
Nothing to lose but your supply chains: IPEF and the resilience agenda
23-Aug-2023 Ibon International
Trade justice activists slammed the lack of transparency in the IPEF negotiation process. Social movements have showing resistance to demand prioritising labour, climate justice, and human rights over corporate profits in Indo-Pacific trade talks.
The struggle of small-scale fishers in Indonesia
12-May-2023 Bilaterals.org
Indonesia is a country that is particularly active and aggressive in negotiating free trade and investment agreements. The food industry, notably fisheries, is often threatened by such agreements.
Germany to support critical minerals-rich countries build processing capacity
17-Apr-2023 Yahoo
Germany wants to help countries that are rich in critical minerals such as Chile, Indonesia and Namibia to build their own processing infrastructure to cut dependency on China.
EU recovers appetite for trade in green industry push
31-Jan-2023 Reuters
The European Union is aiming to enact up to five trade deals in record time to ensure its future as a clean tech leader, by securing supplies of key raw materials, increasing markets for green exports and reducing its reliance on China.
EU, Kazakhstan ink agreement on raw materials and renewable hydrogen at COP27
23-Jan-2023 The Astana Times
The European Union and Kazakhstan seek to strengthen their strategic partnership by signing an agreement on raw materials, batteries and renewable hydrogen.
EU to introduce targets for raw materials self-sufficiency
9-Dec-2022 Euractiv
Existing EU free-trade deals with Canada, Japan and Vietnam contain provisions about raw materials. And there are ongoing talks about including a raw materials chapter in trade agreements with Chile and Australia.
The conflict between traditional miners in Marmato and Canadian transnational mining companies: Another ISDS dispute over natural resources in Colombia
31-Mar-2022 IISD
In Marmato, the foreign investment promotion and protection system facilitated the transformation of the traditional small-scale mining regime into a transnational large-scale mining regime.
Chinese companies exploit Indonesia’s natural resources under BRI Initiative
29-Mar-2022 ANI
The operations of Chinese companies under the Belt and Road Initiative in Indonesia have become a hazard for the country’s environment, disturbing its ecological equilibrium resulting into population displacement.
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.
US Consulate a turning point for disputed Western Sahara
11-Jan-2021 AP
Trump said the goal of the Western Sahara consulate would be “to promote economic and trade opportunities in the region.”
Sovereign rights to natural resources as a basis for denouncing international adjudication of investment disputes: A reflection on the Tanzanian approach
11-Sep-2020 Afronomics Law
Tanzania’s reforms show that the claim that African states should regard ISDS mechanism as the preferred method for resolving investment disputes is not only very contested, but that there are legitimate grounds for those contestations.
Alternatives for the ‘Energy and Raw Materials Chapters’ in EU trade agreements
4-Jun-2020 Power Shift
How trade agreements could strengthen human rights and environmental protection in the raw materials sector.
China’s raw materials strategy
24-Jan-2020 Policy Forum
The BRI builds China’s commercial ties abroad by financing, constructing, and developing major transport, energy, technology, and other infrastructure projects in the Indo-Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas.
Breaking new ground: The EU’s push for raw materials sovereignty
18-Nov-2019 Euractiv
When it comes to critical raw materials, the Commission is exploring fair trade agreements with Africa, Australia and Chile while the Canada-Europe trade deal could be a boon for sourcing nickel and rare earths.