ISDS in Mexico A portrait of transnational power in Mexico the investment protection regime and its consequences

9 Septiembre 2024

The report offers a series of recommendations to Mexico to start the process of exiting the neocolonial regime of investment protection and ISDS, and defend its sovereignty.

ISDS in Mexico: A portrait of transnational power in Mexico the investment protection regime and its consequences (PDF, 2.17 MB)

Tiempo medio de lectura: 30 minutos*

Tipo de publicación: Report

Autores

Summary

This report is an overview of the latest published figures for known investor-state cases against MEXICO up to 30 June 2024. All claims are initiated on the basis of an international investment treaty.

Key findings:

Mexico is party to 31 Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and 11 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) that include a recourse to international arbitration tribunals as the main mechanism for resolving disputes between investors and states, known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).
In 2023, Mexico had received the most investment arbitration claims under investment protection treaties worldwide. With 55 cases in total, Mexico is now among the most sued countries by foreign investors before international arbitration tribunals and the third highest in Latin America and the Caribbean. An increasing volume of public money may end up being paid to foreign investors’ multi-million-dollar claims resulting from arbitrations.
Despite this, Mexico continues to sign new investment protection treaties that include recourse to international arbitration tribunals as the main mechanism for Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). In recent years, Mexico ratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP); renegotiated the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (NAFTA 2.0/USMCA), maintaining the ISDS system between Mexico and the US; and concluded the renegotiation ‘in principle’ of the Trade Agreement with the European Union (EU), which includes a new investment protection chapter. In 2018, Mexico also became a full member of the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) Convention.