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Author: Admin | 2025-04-27
One of the world’s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. In 2019, three private arbitrators ordered Pakistan to pay Barrick’s Australian subsidiary about US $5.8 billion in compensation and a separate arbitration decision reportedly brought the total award up to US $11 billion. These staggering awards – equal to 40 per cent of Pakistan’s total foreign cash reserves at the time – included compensation for expected future profits, even though the investment by the joint venture in 2011 was only about US $220 million. Pakistan ultimately allowed the mine to proceed, and Reko Diq, which Barrick 50 per cent owns, will begin construction in 2025. Jennifer Moore, an associate fellow with the Institute For Policy Studies, says big ISDS awards “can impose a chill on the actions of regulators and governments to properly implement the decisions that have been made in the interest of people and the environment.” Jennifer Moore, associate fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies. Photo submitted by Jennifer Moore Moore says the prospect of payouts and loss of sovereignty is prompting some resource-rich countries – including Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia – to step back or opt out completely from treaties and contracts with ISDS provisions. Meanwhile, European countries have withdrawn en masse from the EU’s multilateral Energy Charter Treaty, while Canada recently hailed the elimination of ISDS, in the latest renegotiation of North American Free Trade Agreement, as a victory for Canadian sovereignty. “[ISDS] has cost Canadian taxpayers more than $300 million in penalties and legal fees,” said then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland in 2018 as Canada announced the renegotiated deal. “ISDS elevates the rights of corporations over those of sovereign governments. In removing it, we have strengthened our government’s right to regulate in the public interest, to protect public health and the environment…” Even with this awareness, Moore says Canada’s respect for regulation in the public interest does not extend beyond its own borders. “Canada continues to promote the inclusion of ISDS in its trade agreements around the world, in order to shore up the interests of Canadian-based corporations, very well knowing what the implications of that are.” January 8th 2024 Keep reading
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