Law360 Quotes Stephen Kho in Analysis of TPP Investor-State Arbitration Provision
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Akin Gump international trade partner Stephen Kho has been quoted in the Law360 story “New TPP Shows Investor-State Arbitration Support Persists.” The analysis from the publication reports that a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that holds on to a provision for investor-state arbitration will still permit investors to assert claims against another treaty signatory nation in the event that a treaty provision is violated.
One exception, according to the article, is a side deal between Australia and New Zealand that bars investors of those two countries from asserting investor-state claims of one nation against the other’s government under the new trade agreement.
Kho said there was some concern that the United States under the Obama administration had been “one of the main demanders” of the investment chapter in the previous version of the deal, which would have potentially put the provision on thin ice when President Trump withdrew the United States from the TPP in early 2017.
The fact that the provision is still included, Kho said, “suggests there are others who see the value in that as well, and that’s a good thing” for investors and for the future of investor-state arbitration.