The regime of international investments within the EC-Chile Association Agreement: towards a possible renegotiation?

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the Association Agreement concluded between the European Community, today European Union, and Chile, as it is believed that it can be, given its articulated regulatory and institutional framework, a good example of how similar treaties, in the field of international investments, can combine the protection of the foreign company’s rights with the promotion and respect of the host-State’s public interests. Besides, in the light of the amendments to the content and scope of the EU Common Commercial Policy made by Treaty of Lisbon, through which the European Union acquires an exclusive competence in the field of FDI, it seems likely that in the future the issue of FDI may fully fall within the scope of the said Association Agreement, excluding, in the relations between Chile and the single EU Member States, the application of the BIT in force. This might encourage the parties to introduce a chapter on the setting up of a dispute settlement mechanism also operating in the relationships between investors and host-States. Such progress, in fact, would be fully in line with the recent practice of Free Trade Agreements concluded by Chile with third countries, which entrust the resolution of conflicts between the foreign company and the host-State to international arbitration bodies.