Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations on Investment Issues and Challenges

Abstract:     
This article analyses the three most debated investment issues in the 2011 TPP negotiations which are 1) Enhancing investment protection; 2) the treatment of state controlled entities; 3) ISDS, whereby an investor may pursue a claim directly against the host state before an international tribunal is another key issue. The different stances taken by countries towards these issues reflect the turbulences through which the emerging global investment regime is going through. Far from the relative maturity reached in the field of trade, investment regulation still has to cover new issues while clarifying old classical concepts in order to provide with greater predictability. If the better definition of some key concepts of investment protection is likely to prevail and lead to innovations in rule making, the treatment of public investors among TPP countries and to a greater extent the negotiations over ISDS promise to remain very debated topics until the end of the negotiations.

Keywords: Investment, trans-pacific partnership, arbitration

JEL Classification: F02, F10, F20, F30, F40

working papers series