Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the UK requesting a carve out of Investor State Dispute Mechanisms inherent to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership when negotiating the UK’s accession to the CPTPP; and if she will make a statement.

The precise details of any future free trade agreement are a matter of negotiation; we would not seek to pre-empt these discussions.

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 has 90+ Bilateral Investment Treaties in force with ISDS and has never received a successful claim nor has the threat of potential claims affected our legislation.