Investor state dispute settlement under TPP risks and implications for vietnam

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY -*** - DISSERTATION Investor-State Dispute Settlement under TPP: Risks and Implications for Vietnam Major: International Trade Policy and Law Full name: Dinh Thuc Anh Hanoi, 2017 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY -*** - DISSERTATION Investor-State Dispute Settlement under TPP: Risks and Implications for Vietnam Major: International Trade Policy and Law Full name: Dinh Thuc Anh SUPERVISOR: DR VU VAN NGOC Hanoi, 2017 i REASSURANCE I hereby assure that this master thesis is exclusively made by myself and that all data and results stated in this master thesis are honest In addition, I hereby assure that all of the supports in the process of implementation of this master thesis have been thanked and all of data and information cited in the master thesis have been specified its sources The author, Dinh Thuc Anh ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude and great appreciation to my supervisor Dr Vu Van Ngoc, for his exemplary guidance and valuable encouragement throughout the course of this thesis The support and guidance given by him have been priceless I also take this opportunity to express a deep sense of gratitude to all the professors and lectures of the master program of International Trade policy and Law for their valuable supports and guidance, which helped me in growing in knowledge and experience through various stages Furthermore, I would like to especially thank for the support, encouragement, and assistance from my family, colleagues and friends during the time of this thesis Hanoi, 05th April, 2017 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS REASSURANCE I ACKNOWLEDGEMENT II TABLE OF CONTENTS III LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VII LIST OF FIGURES IX LIST OF BOXES IX ABSTRACT .1 INTRODUCTION .2 Research rationale .2 Research objectives .3 Scope of the research 4 Research methodology Structure of the research CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW ON INVESTOR – STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT 1.1 INVESTMENT AND INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT .6 1.1.1 Investment .6 1.1.2 International investment 1.1.3 General effects of foreign investment on host states 13 1.2 INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS .15 1.2.1 History and development of international investment agreements 15 1.2.2 Main contents of international investment agreements 19 1.3 INVESTOR – STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT 21 iv 1.3.1 General features of investor –state dispute 22 1.3.1.1 With regards to the objects of the dispute 22 1.3.1.2 With regards to the scope of investor – state dispute 24 1.3.1.3 With regards to the method of investor – state dispute settlement .24 1.3.2 Current situation of investor – state dispute settlement .29 CHAPTER 2: INVESTOR – STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT UNDER TPP AND EVALUATION OF RISKS OF INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT UNDER TPP ON VIETNAM 33 2.1 Investor-state dispute settlement under TPP agreement .33 2.1.1 Objectives and main contents of TPP agreement 33 2.1.1.1 Objectives of TPP agreement .33 2.1.1.2 Current situation of TPP agreement 36 2.1.2 Regulations on investor-state dispute settlement under TPP agreement 37 2.1.2.1 Regulations on foreign investor protection 37 2.1.2.2 Investment dispute settlement procedural regulations 44 2.1.3 Preliminary evaluation of investor – state dispute settlement under TPP on host state .48 2.1.3.1 Benefits for the host state 48 2.1.3.2 Risks for the host state 51 2.2 Evaluation of investor-state dispute settlement under TPP agreement on Vietnam 57 2.2.1 Increase in risks of being sued 57 2.2.1.1 Current inconsistent, instable law system with cumbersome procedures 58 v 2.2.1.2 Gap between implementation in reality and in laws 61 2.2.2 Risks in state-investor dispute settlement system 63 2.2.3 Burden of costs for international arbitral procedures 64 2.2.4 Difficulties and risks in developing and protecting domestic economy and society 65 2.2.4.1 Risks in developing and protecting domestic enterprise/industry 66 2.2.4.2 Risks in protecting environment 67 2.2.4.3 Risks in foreign exchange control and financial stability 68 2.2.5 Risks arising from the unefficient management mechanism of State owned enterprise 69 CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATION 71 3.1 Improvement of capacities in issuance and implementation of legal documents .71 3.1.1 Innovating procedures of issuance of laws and regulations 71 3.1.2 Improving capacity of authorities’ organs/staff in building legal documents 73 3.1.3 Enhancing effectiveness of supervision/checking of laws and regulations system 74 3.1.4 Improvement of capacities of implementing of laws in reality 74 3.2 Use of other alternatives for dispute settlement under arbitral procedures 75 3.3 Preparation of resources for investor state dispute settlement by arbitration 76 3.3.1 Obtaining experience through participation in investor state dispute settlement mechanism .76 3.3.2 Improvement of human resources 77 vi 3.4 3.5 Utilization of exceptions in signed TPP agreement .78 Other preventive methods 79 CONCLUSION 81 REFERENCES 83 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Description ADB Asian Development Bank BIT Bilateral Investment Treaty FDI Foreign Direct Investment FET Fair and Equitable Treatment FTA Free Trade Agreement FCN Friendship, Commerce and Navigation ICSID International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes IIA International Investment Agreement IMF International Monetary Fund ISDS Investor-State Dispute Settlement GDP Gross Domestic Product MFN Most Favored Nation NAFTA North American Free Trade Area NGO Non-Governmental Organization NT National Treatment OECD SMEs Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Small and Medium Enterprises viii TPP Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement TNC Transnational Corporation UN United Nations UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development US United States WTO World Trade Organization 73 Secondly, the evaluation of programs of issuance/amendment of legal documents must be conducted rigorously and carefully There should be a mechanism to enhance the responsibility of the agencies being asked for opinions The organ in charge of evaluation legal documents should complete the legal wording of the documents before submitting to the National Assembly or the Government and must be responsible for this evaluation (Ngoc Ha, 2008) 3.1.2 Improving capacity of authorities’ organs/staff in building legal documents It should be focused on the roles of authorities’ experts/staff in building, drafting legal documents Accordingly, it is necessary to improve the capacity of experts/staff in the legal documents; determine and the responsibilities of the organ in charge of drafting legal documents Enhancing the coordination among ministries, departments to ensure the uniformity, consistency of the drafted legal documents Expanding participation of society (especially the research institutions, scientists) in stage of asking for opinion on draft of legal documents In addition, there should be a mandatory mechanism for policy-makers to absorb the opinions of the citizens, especially of the objects of the legal documents (Le Minh Thong, 2014) To improve the quality of examination and revision of the draft laws and ordinances, strengthen and improve the effectiveness of monitoring the issuance of the legal document guiding laws, it should establish some specialized divisions of the National Assembly to ensure that there are enough human resources for the legislative tasks; increase the ratio of the qualified legal expertise in each field; increase the number of full-time members Besides, there also a need to increase both of quantity and quality of the team assisting the commissions of the National Assembly in order to study and advise effectively for the commissions of the National Assembly 74 3.1.3 Enhancing effectiveness of supervision/checking of laws and regulations system Checking legal documents includes two activities: Issuance authority organs by itself checks its legal documents, higher level authority organs checks the legal documents issued by the subordinate organ The checking of legal documents is for the purpose of discovery of the inconsistent, overlapping regulations as well as ineffective regulations in legal documents in order to promptly handle In order to ensure the effective issuance of the legal documents, it also needs the specific administrative penalties for both of irresponsible issuance organ and related staff in activities of issuance legal documents 3.1.4 Improvement of capacities of implementing of laws in reality Firstly, an unclear workflow will lead to the inefficient organization of the works If the authority person/staff in the chain processes of decision-making on behalf of the organization are not fully aware of what to do, in which period, what the inputs and outputs for their works are, will not guarantee or even, operate according to the workflows Reality has shown that in many cases due to the lack of guidelines on the process and procedures for conducting work, some state organs have refused to implement regulations, in turn, it will affect the effectiveness of regulation in reality Secondly, the capacity of authority staff who are responsible for implementation of regulations in reality plays a very important factor If the capacity of authority staff does not meet the requirements, the implementation of legal documents in reality will be clearly affected According to the assessment of the Institute for Central Economic Management, one of the basic reasons causing ineffective implementation of the Enterprise Law is the weak capacity to grasp regulations of authorities’ staff Another factor has the impact on the motivation for the authority staff to duly and effectively perform its responsibilities is the benefits they gain from its process of implementation For instance, administrative procedures with benefits under the 75 kind of “Ask-Give” mechanism will give opportunities for the authority staff to have “tip” and this will be the biggest obstacles to the reform of administrative procedures in Vietnam (Dinh Dung Si, 2009) Finally, the monitoring and evaluating the implementation of the law is also important The monitoring and evaluation are considered as a tool to limit the abuse of power by the authority officials in the process of implementation of legal documents Monitoring and evaluation also create pressure to the authorities’ officials/ responsibilities in implementing the law, avoiding delays in the implementation of tasks Furthermore, monitoring and evaluation will be a tool to collect feedbacks to adjust legal documents 3.2 Use of other alternatives for dispute settlement under arbitral procedures According to Article 9.18, in the event of an investment dispute, the claimant and the respondent should initially seek to resolve the dispute through consultation and negotiation, which may include the use of non-binding, third party procedures, such as good offices, conciliation or mediation In addition, after the end of the period of months, if the investment dispute cannot be solved, the foreign investor has right but not obligation to submit the dispute the international arbitration as mentioned in the investment chapter Therefore, even after the period of months, the host state and the foreign investor may continue to use alternatives for investment dispute resolution As mentioned above, besides advantages, dispute resolution through arbitration has its disadvantages One of the most disadvantages is skyrocketed costs such as lawyer fees, arbitral procedures fees, fees for technical experts, etc and in case the state is loosed, it also includes compensation for damages Similarly, the foreign investor when participating in the arbitration proceeding also burdens the cost for lawyers’ fees, arbitral procedures fees, and costs for technical experts In addition, both of the foreign investor and states take a long time to pursue these dispute at the arbitral proceeding and the execution/enforcement of the award 76 after that The average for a case to be heard and finally settled varies from three to four years A different finding suggests that it takes 392 days on average between the hearing of the merits and the issuance of the final award, with a range from as little as 92 days to 941 days (UNCTAD, 2009, page 18) Finally, there has been more criticism on the arbitral proceeding of ICSID such as the conflict of interests of the arbitrators, etc as mentioned above For the above reasons, Vietnam should utilize alternatives dispute settlement before the foreign investor submit the dispute to the international arbitration Besides the above alternatives for investment dispute settlement as mentioned in the investment chapter of TPP agreement, the mechanism of state-state dispute settlement may be one of the methods which Vietnam may use 3.3 Preparation of resources for investor state dispute settlement by arbitration 3.3.1 Obtaining experience through participation in investor state dispute settlement mechanism In the context that Vietnam has little experience in mechanisms for settlement of international investment disputes in general and ICSID in particular, Vietnam would have to face the threat of being claimed at international investment arbitration For those reasons, although Vietnam has not been a member of the ICSID Convention yet, following preparations are still very necessary: First, Vietnam should actively participate in the arbitration proceedings early From the practice of settlement disputes under ICSID in Asian countries, it can be seen that some neighboring countries such as Philippines, Malaysia or other countries having same level of economic development to Vietnam such have begun to protect their interests as respondents more and more actively, for example exercising early control over the cases in the very first phase, proactively submitting counterclaim not merely defending, requesting the tribunal to provide legal grounds for their conclusions, requesting annulment of awards in cases of defaults stipulated in Art.52 of the Convention (Nguyen Trung Nam, 2012) Vietnam should be more 77 actively review the procedures, proceeding process as well as previous cases at ICSID and search for information and profiles of ICSID arbitrators and law firms that would be appropriate to its needs (in terms of expertise, fee and cost) in advance in order to react quickly and protect its legitimate interests when Vietnam have to face a claim at ICSID Secondly, Vietnam should actively control arbitration costs and legal costs As mentioned above, a challenge for host states is the arbitration costs and related legal costs in proceedings From the practice of settlement under ICSID in Asia, it can be seen that issues on costs usually invoke debates between disputing parties, they also cause the inconsistency in approaches of arbitrators Under common international rules, arbitrators usually follow the USA’s approach (each party shall bear their own legal costs and half of arbitration cost, e.g in Fraport and Gruslin) or the UK’s approach (the losing party shall bear all costs or on a ratio rendered in the award, e.g in PSEG v Turkey) However, decisions on costs of arbitrators depend heavily on the conduct and position of each party in the proceeding For example in Gruslin v Malaysia, the Tribunal held that the respondent (Malaysia) had slowly provided its arguments thereby prolonged the proceeding, together with other reasons, therefore Malaysia was ordered to pay half of arbitration cost although it had been awarded prevailing On contrary, in Cementownia v Turkey, Turkey succeeded in proving a fraud claim made by Cementownia, and then the Tribunal ordered Cementownia to pay Turkey USD 5.3 million and other costs associated with the case (Nguyen Trung Nam, 2012) Hence, actively defending, not making delays in proceedings and providing appropriate arguments and requests for arbitration and legal costs play important roles in controlling and minimizing costs 3.3.2 Improvement of human resources As mentioned above, the cost for international lawyers takes a huge part of the total costs for international arbitration, which is not included compensation for damages Being developing state, Vietnam has experienced a little with international investment dispute settlement mechanism In addition, human 78 resources (lawyers) of Vietnam prepared for international investment settlement also weak, which expressed through the facts that domestic lawyers, technical experts have not sufficient knowledge, capacity as well as experiences in international investment dispute settlement In addition, authority organs/department of Vietnam, especially at the level of province, are not fully aware of the impact of the issuance of new regulations or implementation of regulations on foreign investor may create risks for being violated investment chapter under TPP agreements However, in general, the human resources of the authorities department has not experienced with the process of investment dispute settlement from the cooling-off period such as negotiation, mediation, etc to dispute resolution in arbitration Therefore, enhancement of the capacity of human resources involving the investment dispute settlement is necessary, especially in the long term There are some recommendations for improving such capacities: - Open courses of international investment laws, especially international investment dispute settlement for domestic lawyers and authority staff, especially at provincial level This course may be cooperated with foreign educational departments/institute - Participated in training in international investment laws, international investment dispute settlement run by NGOs for developing states such as UNCTAD, etc - In case of investment dispute settlement through arbitration, the team of lawyer should be the cooperation of domestic lawyers and foreign lawyer, but not only foreign lawyers, so that, domestic lawyers have the chance to gain experience from foreign lawyers 3.4 Utilization of exceptions in signed TPP agreement As requested by TPP agreements, after TPP was signed, there will need the internal procedural in each state Each state which has adopted TPP agreement will inform the other TPP’s member state TPP agreement will take effects after 60 days since all the Member States adopted the TPP If all the members not approve 79 within years from the date of signing the Agreement, the Agreement shall enter into force 60 days after the expiration of years if at least Member States having total GDP accounted for over 85% of the total GDP of all 12 countries Therefore, Vietnam has still a period before TPP agreements take effects to prepare internal resources for implement regulations, including but not limited to amending laws and other regulations, communicating the contents of TPP agreements to communities, enterprises, and authorities at central levels and provincial levels, organizing training courses on international investment laws and investment dispute settlement, etc In addition, Vietnam also reserved the application of principles of MFN, NT, conforming measures, non-conforming measures, etc Accordingly, in comparison with commitment of Vietnam in GATS, there are some extension in commercial representatives in areas of real estate services, rental/leasing services without operators, services incidental to mining, etc Furthermore, Vietnam also reserved the period of years as from the effect date of TPP to not comply with regulations as required by some principles (NT, MFN, the requirement of management, etc) in investment chapter of TPP agreements Therefore, Vietnam has more time to prepare domestic resources 3.5 Other preventive methods In addition to the above methods to prevent the ISDS through arbitration, there also some other methods including sharing information mechanism and targeting sensitive sectors With regards to sharing information mechanism, this mechanism is highly recommended for developing states This mechanism has been implemented in Peru (UNCTAD, 2009b) Accordingly, there are many investment disputes raised from the acts of provincial authorities because it staff at provincial authorities can not have enough information as well as capacity as at central levels Therefore, there are some recommendations as follows: 80 - Effectively communicate detailed contents of and notes of implementation for TPP agreements for authorities at provincial levels to be fully aware as well as preliminary methods to prevent investment dispute - Establish a mechanism for information exchange based on which if there are any difficulties in implementation of regulation of TPP agreements or any risks raised from the implementation of TPP agreements, authorities at principal level will ask for the support from central level The central level authorities therefore, will more control the operation at provincial level and limit the risks of being sued With regards to the method of targeting sensitive sectors, based on the fact that there are some sectors in which there is more investment dispute than other sectors such as mining, BOT, etc Therefore, the building policies and regulations in this area should be taken accounts of preventive methods for investment dispute 81 CONCLUSION It is undenied that foreign direct investment plays important roles for the economy development Being developing state, Vietnam has used international investment agreements in general as well as investment chapter in TPP agreement in particular, as a tool to improve internal institution and offer the right to sue a host state before international arbitration for foreign investor, which is not equal in legal international law in order to attract foreign direct investment However, IIAs could be seen as a knife and if Vietnam does not have enough clever to use it, Vietnam will be hurt As analysis in the above chapters, with a system of building, implementation, supervision of laws being weak, incomplete, ineffective, instable and weak in capacity of authorities staff, when TPP takes effects, Vietnam may be careful or may face a lot of difficulties in regulating new policies to internal matters which may be considered as negative effects on expected benefits of foreign investors, especially policies on development of SMEs, some targeting industries, protect foreign currencies reserve, protect public interests, etc These difficulties may also result in macroeconomic management of Vietnam in some cases In addition, Vietnam has little experience in ISDS, therefore, participating in TPP agreements may be huge challenges The burden of costs for international arbitration and compensation really heavy for the national budget However, this does not mean that there is no solution for Vietnam Vietnam may improve its capacity in legislation and law implementation both at administrative procedures and human resources capacities However, this solution is long term and needs time because it is the tradition of Vietnam for a long time In short time, Vietnam may use mechanism of exchanging of information as mentioned in chapter 5, increase use the alternative measures to replace international arbitration, or in case of dispute, the cooperation between domestic lawyers and foreign lawyers Within scope of this thesis, the research only mentions the risks of TPP on the right of issuance and implementation of laws and policies, which focus on the 82 matters of development and protection of some infant industries, SMEs, environment protection and foreign exchange reserve; and burden of cost for international arbitration and compensation, but not other risks may happen to Vietnam Because TPP agreement has not been effective, these risks have the characteristic of anticipation based on theory and experience of Vietnam and some other developing states Furthermore, the cases of developing states being analyzed are not comprehensive and the situations and conditions of such cases may not be the same to Vietnam For these above, therein matters suggest the tendency to study for more details in the future for the researcher who are concerned about this matter 83 REFERENCES Vietnamese documents: 1.1 Dinh Dung Si, Concept on the perfect law system, Legislative Study Journal, 2009 (Dinh Dung Si, 2009); 1.2 National Economic University, Investment Textbook, Statistics Publishing House, 2003, page 16-17 (National Economic University, 2013); 1.3 Ha Hung Cuong, Perfecting the law system to build the socialist legitimacy state, Legislative Study Journal No 139+140, 2009 (Ha Hung Cuong, 2009) 1.4 Hoang Van Chau, TPP Agreement and the participation of Vietnam, Bach Khoa Ha Noi Publishing House, 2014, page 131 (Hoang Van Chau, 2014); Foreign documents: 2.1 Donald R Shea, the Calvo clause: A problem of interamerican and international law and diplomacy, Minnesota 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EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY -*** - DISSERTATION Investor-State Dispute Settlement under TPP: Risks and Implications for Vietnam Major: International Trade Policy and Law... cases and policies related to each provision); investor-state dispute settlement: main features and methods of investor-state dispute settlement and current situation of investor-state dispute settlement