Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether exemptions from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism were sought by Government during accession negotiations to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with all member states.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (CPTPP’s) investment chapter includes investor protections that are backed by a modern and transparent investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. These commitments guarantee the treatment investors will receive when accessing and operating in CPTPP markets and provides an independent form of legal redress should investors not receive such treatment.

The UK already has investment agreements containing ISDS provisions with seven of the eleven CPTPP countries: Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Having ISDS provisions in a treaty is not new for the UK with the majority of CPTPP countries.

In light of the investment relationship the UK has with Australia and New Zealand, we have agreed to disapply the ISDS provisions in CPTPP between our countries.