A portrait of transnational power in Mexico: the investment protection regime and its consequences (Report)

This report is a compendium of investor cases against the Mexican State. All lawsuits are based on an international investment protection treaty, part of the 42 free trade agreements that Mexico has signed. With a total of 55 lawsuits, Mexico is the fourth most sued country in the world.

With this arbitrary investment protection regime, more and more public money is at risk to pay investors the multimillion-dollar amounts resulting from the arbitrations. Despite this, Mexico continues to sign new investment protection treaties.

So far, Mexico has been ordered to pay almost US$341 million in 11 cases in compensation to investors. Of the 23 pending lawsuits, in 14 cases the total amount claimed by investors amounts to $13,616 million, and in nine pending claims the amount claimed is not known.

Of the 13 billion dollars for which Mexico is being sued, more than half, 6.7 billion dollars, are claims by mining companies. Among the lawsuits is that of U.S.-based Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. suing Mexico under NAFTA for failing to approve environmental permits for its phosphate mining project in marine subsoil off the coast of Baja California Sur. They claim the enormous amount of “at least 3.54 billion dollars”, due to opposition from fishing groups.

Mexico’s economic strategy of opening the country to foreign investors, granting them more and more privileges through investment protection treaties, has cost it dearly. Therefore, the organizations that published the report recommend conducting a review of all investment protection treaties, suspending the possibility of using investor-state lawsuits and not signing new free trade agreements with investment protection clauses.

The report “A portrait of transnational power in Mexico: the investment protection regime and its consequences” was published by Transnational Institute, Institute for Policy Studies, Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco, A.C, Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Valle de Tehuacán, A.C., Servicios para una Educación Alternativa EDUCA, A.C., Enlace Comunicación y Capacitación, A.C., Otros Mundos Chiapas, A.C. y Proyecto sobre Organización y Desarrollo, Educación e Investigación (PODER).

Download report here A portrait of transnational power in MEXICO the investment protection regime and its consequences (pdf, 19 pages)