8 May 2015

The British Institute of International and Comparative Law invited A/P Michael Ewing-Chow, CIL Head of Trade/Investment Law and Policy, to be one of the panellists in the 24th Investment Treaty Forum Public Conference, which was held on 8 May 2015 in London, United Kingdom. The theme of this year’s forum was “The European Union’s Investment Treaties in Global Context”. On the panel, “Comparing the Texts-Substantive Protections”, Michael discussed the most-favoured nation (MFN) clause, which has been a subject of controversy in international investment law. He noted that the Investment Chapter of the EU-Singapore Free Trade Agreement does not have an MFN clause, whereas the Investment Chapter of the Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement (CETA) has one that carves out dispute settlement and limits MFN application only to treatment. He then proposed that the necessity of an MFN clause should be re-evaluated in light of States’ attempts to refine their new International Investment Agreements (IIAs), and that National Treatment (NT) and Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) clauses may be sufficient to address investors’ concerns regarding abuse.