Bilateral Investment Treaties, EU Investment Policy and International Development
Author: Thomas Fritz
Gateshead, March 2015
Published by Traidcraft
in the framework of the 'BITs in Pieces' project
Background:
International Investment Agreements such as Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) pose serious threats to democracy and the rule of law, especially through the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS). As developing countries continue to be the most frequent respondents in ISDS cases, the number of governments questioning the merits of the international investment regime is constantly growing. Policy reforms proposed in the Global South go far beyond the rather cosmetic changes of the investment framework advocated by the EU in the context of the ongoing negotiations on CETA and TTIP.