ICSID Claim by Spanish Companies against Mexico over the Center for the Integral Management of Industrial Resources

26 Pages Posted: 28 Jun 2010

Date Written: June 28, 2010

Abstract

On December 11, 2009, The ICSID Secretary General registered a request for the institution of arbitration proceedings. Abengoa, S.A. and COFIDES, S.A. are the companies who requested the arbitration against the United Mexican States. There is no further information about this claim on the ICSID’s website, but the Spanish press has reported that these companies require the Mexican federal government to pay USD $ 96 million plus interest for failure to implement the waste plant in Zimapán - USD $40 million for the cost of the plant and USD $56 million for lost profits.

The request for arbitration stresses that the inability to operate the project is a consequence of various acts carried out by Zimapán’s municipal authorities, such as the revocation of the municipal license to operate, the digging of trenches and roadblocks to keep out truck en route to the landfill, and the diversion of public funds to prevent the operation. The Spanish companies also accuse the federal government and the state of Hidalgo’s authorities of various acts and omissions that may encompasses a violation of the Bilateral Investment Treaty between Mexico and Spain.

(Este articulo reflexiona sobre la reciente reclamación que dos empresas españolas (Abengoa S.A. y Cofides S.A.) han planteado frente a los Estados Unidos Mexicanos en el Centro Internacional de Arreglo de Diferencias Relativas a Inversiones (CIADI). El análisis de las características de esta controversia, todavía pendiente de resolución, permite estudiar asimismo otros previos arbitrajes de inversión como Metalclad y Tecmed. También en estos casos, México fue demandado ante CIADI por empresas extranjeras que habían realizado importantes inversiones en el ámbito de la gestión de residuos en México. El examen de dichos supuestos conduce igualmente a considerar alguno de los retos a los que se enfrenta actualmente el Derecho Internacional de las Inversiones, como son la modernización de sus mecanismos arbitrales, la protección de los intereses colectivos o la creciente voluntad, por parte de los países en vías de desarrollo, de priorizar las inversiones “cualitativamente beneficiosas”.)

Keywords: ICSID, Investment Arbitration, Developing Countries

JEL Classification: F23, K33

Suggested Citation

Fach Gomez, Katia, ICSID Claim by Spanish Companies against Mexico over the Center for the Integral Management of Industrial Resources (June 28, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1631835 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1631835

Katia Fach Gomez (Contact Author)

University of Zaragoza ( email )

Pedro Cerbuna 12
Zaragoza, zaragoza 50009
Spain

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