{"id":1146,"date":"2024-01-16T01:27:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-16T01:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=1146"},"modified":"2024-01-16T01:54:52","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T01:54:52","slug":"environment_detail_2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=1146","title":{"rendered":"ENVIRONMENT_DETAIL_2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\">ENVIRONMENT<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\"><strong>JANUARY 14, 202<\/strong>4<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Panama Tried to Close a Hated Mine. Not So Fast, Said Foreign Investors.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Little-known legal system \u201celevates the rights of corporations over those of sovereign governments.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>CHRISTOPHER POLLON<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"432\" src=\"http:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Panama.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1173\" style=\"width:760px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Panama.webp 768w, https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Panama-300x169.webp 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A demonstrator holds a sign that reads: &#8220;Yes to life, no to the mine,&#8221; during a protest against a mining contract between First Quantum Minerals of Canada and Panama&#8217;s government over the Cobre Panam\u00e1 copper mine<strong>Arnulfo Franco\/AP\/Canada&#8217;s National Observer<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><strong>The battle between<\/strong>&nbsp;a Canadian mining company and Panama over one of the richest copper-gold mines in the Americas is headed to international arbitration\u2014exposing Canada\u2019s double standard when it comes to promoting free trade in the Global South.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Late in 2023, the Supreme Court of Panama unanimously ruled that the agreement to mine Cobre Panam\u00e1, controlled by Toronto\u2019s First Quantum Minerals, was unconstitutional. Beset by a generational, popular backlash against the mine, the government of Laurentino Cortizo accepted the court decision and the legislature banned new mining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not everyone celebrated. Cobre Panam\u00e1 provides about five percent of GDP for this tiny nation of just over four million, and supplies thousands of jobs. The open pit mine, set amid the\u00a0Mesoamerican Biological Corridor\u00a0that connects wildlife across Central America and southern Mexico, is also an important source of copper needed in vast quantities to realize the clean-energy transition. Before he resigned in the wake of the court ruling, Panama\u2019s Trade minister Frederico Alfaro\u00a0predicted\u00a0the decision would reap economic chaos, unemployment, and not least, an onslaught of \u201cinternational claims from investors.\u201d\u201cWhen you are attacking a country\u2019s decisions\u201d from its Supreme Court, \u201cyou better have a damn good argument.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The latter is now\u00a0in play. First Quantum, the main investor in the mine, announced it intends to take Panama to international arbitration for alleged breach of the Free Trade agreement finalized by Canada\u2019s Harper government in 2013. Its Panamanian subsidiary has launched separate arbitration over the alleged failure to honor the 2023 concession agreement (approved by Panama in October, and ruled unconstitutional in November). At least three additional mining\u00a0investor suits\u00a0against Panama, including one by Toronto-based Franco-Nevada, have also suddenly emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Panama and the companies must now enter the clandestine world of\u00a0Investor State Dispute Settlements\u00a0(ISDS)\u2014a little-known global system designed to settle disputes between foreign investors and sovereign nations. In taking a dispute to ISDS, a foreign investor seeks to enforce commitments made by a nation through a law, treaty or contract. Cases are typically settled by three ISDS adjudicators\u2014not judges but private-sector lawyers\u2014where the investors select one, the nation chooses another, and a third is agreed on by both. The dispute is then settled by a binding ruling, which can include compensation awards to investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There have been at least 1,200 known international arbitration cases since the late 1980s, with a sharp rise in both the number and value of awards handed out since 2000. Extractive companies in oil and gas and mining account for about a third of all cases, with governments in Latin America and Africa being targeted most often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gus Van Harten, a law professor at York University\u2019s Osgoode Hall and author of four books on ISDS, says First Quantum will try to use the arbitration process to prove Panama\u2019s Supreme Court breached the Canada-Panama free trade agreement. If the mine is shuttered, the company wants compensation for the billions it claims to have invested until this moment, and likely much more. \u201cThe big ticket item will be the claim of lost future profits, which will go into a very large number, billions, maybe more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Harten doesn\u2019t think it will be easy for First Quantum to make its case. \u201cWhen you are attacking a country\u2019s decisions emanating from the Supreme Court, you better have a damn good argument.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First Quantum did not respond to calls for this story.The global arbitration system \u201chas fangs,\u201d notes one legal expert. \u201cThis is property rights for foreign investors, on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The stakes are enormous, nonetheless. If a country loses at arbitration, there is no escape. Van Harten says the international ISDS system, unlike most lax-on-consequence international law, \u201cdoesn\u2019t have teeth\u2014it has fangs. Once you get the award, [the investors] can basically shop that award around across different countries, looking for assets of the state, and then you can chase and attack those assets to make good on the award.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Parties can go after development bank loans and virtually anything else. Argentina had one of its navy\u00a0ships seized\u00a0while docked in Ghana, on behalf of a US hedge fund. Van Harten says the treaties are written very favorably for the protection of foreign investor assets, and are more generous than anything you would see in domestic law protecting property rights. \u201cThis is property rights for foreign investors, on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent history speaks to the power of the ISDS system wielded by\u00a0Canadian mining companies, which account for a disproportionate number of these cases due to Canada\u2019s dominance of international mining. A joint venture led by Toronto\u2019s Barrick Gold Corporation took Pakistan to the World Bank\u2019s International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in 2011 after the latter refused to issue a mining permit for Reko Diq, one of the world\u2019s largest undeveloped copper-gold deposits. In 2019, three private arbitrators ordered Pakistan to pay Barrick\u2019s Australian subsidiary about US $5.8 billion in compensation and a separate arbitration decision reportedly brought the total award up to\u00a0US $11 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These staggering awards\u2014equal to 40 percent of Pakistan\u2019s total foreign cash reserves at the time\u2014included compensation for expected future profits, even though the investment by the joint venture in 2011 was only about $220 million. Pakistan ultimately allowed the mine to proceed, and Reko Diq, which Barrick 50 percent owns, will begin construction in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jennifer Moore, an associate fellow with the Institute For Policy Studies, says\u00a0big ISDS awards\u00a0\u201ccan 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moore says the prospect of payouts and loss of sovereignty is prompting some resource-rich countries\u2014including Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia\u2014to step back or opt out completely from treaties and contracts with ISDS provisions. Meanwhile, European countries have\u00a0withdrawn en masse\u00a0from the EU\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c[ISDS] has\u00a0cost Canadian taxpayers\u00a0more than $300 million in penalties and legal fees,\u201d said then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland in 2018 as Canada announced the renegotiated deal. \u201cISDS elevates the rights of corporations over those of sovereign governments. In removing it, we have strengthened our government\u2019s right to regulate in the public interest, to protect public health and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even with this awareness, Moore says Canada\u2019s respect for regulation in the public interest does not extend beyond its own borders: \u201cCanada 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Panama Tried to Close a Hated Mine. Not So Fast, Said Foreign Investors. The battle between&nbsp;a Canadian mining company and Panama over one of the richest copper-gold mines in the Americas is headed to international arbitration\u2014exposing Canada\u2019s double standard when it comes to promoting free trade in the Global South. Late in 2023, the Supreme&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/?page_id=1146\" class=\"\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">ENVIRONMENT_DETAIL_2<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":523,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"on","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":"","footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1176,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1146\/revisions\/1176"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aiecasia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}