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ISDS in numbers: Impacts of investment arbitration against Latin America and the Carribbean

Transnational Institute

 

This report will be updated every 4 months and published in the new website: http://isds-americalatina.org/

 


The dangers of the investment protection agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have been exposed in the report ISDS in Numbers published on Monday by the Transnational Institute. The report presents cold hard figures showing:
 

  • Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) states have been sued by foreign investors 234 times, representing 28.6% of all known investor-state disputes around the world.
  • Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru accounts for 77.3% of the total number of claims against LAC countries.
  • Investors have won in 70% of the cases brought against LAC countries.
  • LAC States have already had to pay foreign companies 20.6 billion USD, this is equivalent to ten times the total cost of rebuilding in Mexico after the 2017 earthquakes or  Bolivia’s budget for health and education for four whole years.
  • Investors from the United States, Canada and Europe brought 89% of the total claims.
  • 23% of the claims concern the mining, gas and oil sectors and many seek to protect the environment and the rights of communities, as well as policies to make companies pay more taxes to the state in these sectors.