The Investment Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and Latin America: A Possibility of Change and Convergence?

Abstract

This paper analyses the possible effects that would create for Latin American countries, the inclusion of an investment chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, currently in negotiation. The article discusses four aspects that are of particular importance given the divergence of interests between some of the negotiating States of the TPP: the substantive protection of foreign investment and its scope; domestic regulations on capital controls; the emergence of state entities as foreign investors; and the settlement of disputes through investor-state arbitration. The author concludes that compared to the current international investment agreements signed by the Latin America countries that are negotiating the TPP, the inclusion of an investment chapter in this agreement is an opportunity to advance in the convergence on the regulation of foreign investment, both in terms of substantive standards of investment protection and to improve investor-state arbitration as a mechanism of dispute resolution.

Keywords: Trans-Pacific Partnership, Investor-State arbitration, foreign investment, regulatory convergence, Latin America