By Jane Kelsey | Guest Blog | May 6, 2016
The contemporary model of international investment agreements (IIAs), enforced through investor-state arbitration, is in turmoil, if not in crisis. An UNCTAD International Investment Arbitration Issues Note published in mid-2014 identified four pathways that had emerged: maintaining the status quo; disengaging from the regime; introducing selective adjustments; and engaging in systematic reform. In recent years Brazil, South Africa and India, three of the large and ascending powers from the global South known colloquially (alongside with Russia and China) as the…
By Kavaljit Singh | Commentary | May 6, 2016
On April 29, 2016, India’s income tax department released tax statistics after a gap of almost 16 years. Till 2000, the tax department used to publish All India Income Tax Statistics but the publication was discontinued for some unknown reasons. No explanations were given by the authorities for the discontinuation of this publication despite numerous demands made for its release by Indian economists and researchers.
According to media reports, the government released this data after French economist Thomas Piketty, author of…
By Alfred de Zayas | Guest Blog | May 2, 2016
Numerous bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements have been and are being negotiated without proper consultation of stakeholders, mostly in secrecy and without public participation. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada concern not only the United States but also the 28 States of the European Union. As model for these new mega-treaties stands the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was signed by twelve…
