The future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)—a global trade deal covering 40 percent of the world economy with 12 signatory states, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, Japan and Singapore—has experienced a major setback by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in January 2017 to withdraw from that agreement. The TPP contains investor-state dispute settlement provisions that would have allowed U.S. investors to commence binding international arbitration against host states for unfair, discriminatory or expropriatory treatment of their international investments. Following the executive order, that mechanism under the TPP will no longer be an option for U.S. investors.
Nonetheless, the U.S. retains an extensive network of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties that continue to protect U.S. investors with arbitration rights against political risk interference in many countries around the world. These rights frequently apply to unfair treatment and discriminatory conduct that does not constitute an expropriation or state taking of the investment, but which nevertheless has a prejudicial impact on the profitability of an investment.
