Investment protection agreements

Switzerland's investment protection agreements are unbalanced in favour of its multinationals when they invest abroad. Alliance Sud is calling for them to be rebalanced to enable host countries to enact legislation in the public interest and for the arbitration-based dispute settlement mechanism to be scrapped. 

What it is about >

What it is about

With a foreign direct investment portfolio worth more than CHF 1460 billion, Swiss companies are among the world's 10 leading exporters of capital. To protect them, the Federal Council has concluded 111 Investment Protection Agreements (IPAs) with developing countries, with the notable exception of the Energy Charter Treaty, which also encompasses EU Member States and the EU itself.

Yet, these agreements almost exclusively assign rights to foreign investors and duties to host countries. Furthermore, they contain a dispute settlement mechanism, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism. It is unique in international law, as it allows a foreign company to sue a host country if it considers itself harmed under the treaty in force between the country of origin and the host country. Alliance Sud is calling for the rebalancing of these agreements and the scrapping of the ISDS.

International trade

Switzerland's trade policies could hamper the capacity of developing countries to legislate in the public interest and to promote the right to health and food. Alliance Sud works to ensure that Switzerland allows them the leeway they need to pursue their own development.

What it is about >

What it is about

Alliance Sud has participated in all the ministerial conferences of the World Trade Organization since its inception in 1995, and has urged Switzerland not to work against the interests of developing countries. But these countries have become more powerful in this organization and no longer accept being dictated to by the rich countries.

Alliance Sud continues to monitor Switzerland's activities at the WTO and to do the utmost to deter Switzerland from taking part in initiatives that can prove detrimental to developing countries, as in the matter of COVID-19 vaccines. Bilaterally, it is advocating for the conduct of effective human rights impact studies and for the inclusion of a chapter on sustainable development that also provides for penalties.

Free trade agreements

Alliance Sud is working specifically to ensure that the stringent intellectual property provisions of Switzerland's free trade agreements do not undermine the human rights of people in the Global South, first and foremost their rights to health and to seeds.

What it is about >

What it is about

As developing countries have become more powerful in the World Trade Organization and no longer accept being dictated to by the rich countries, Switzerland has opted for a policy of concluding free trade agreements. In this way it secures more concessions than in the multilateral framework, especially in terms of strengthened intellectual property rights, which in turn endangers the rights to health and to seeds.

Alliance Sud is advocating for Switzerland to conduct human rights studies designed to gauge the human rights implications of these agreements. It is making the case for these agreements not to endanger the environment and the climate by facilitating deforestation or the expansion of agribusiness to the detriment of smallholders and indigenous peoples. It is calling for the inclusion of an enforceable chapter on sustainable development, in other words, one that provides for penalties in the event of infringement, like all the other chapters in the agreement.

Trade and investments

Alliance Sud is committed to preventing Switzerland's free trade and investment protection agreements from harming disadvantaged people in the South.

What it is about >

What it is about

Alliance Sud has attended all the ministerial conferences of the World Trade Organization since its inception in 1995, and has urged Switzerland not to work against the interests of developing countries. As these countries have become more powerful in this organisation and no longer accept being dictated by the rich countries, Switzerland has opted for a policy of concluding free trade agreements. In this way it secures more concessions than in the multilateral framework, especially in terms of strengthened intellectual property rights, which in turn endangers the rights to health and to seeds.

Besides, under the investment protection agreements concluded with developing countries, Switzerland largely favours the interests of Swiss multinationals, thus jeopardising the capacity of host countries to legislate in the public interest. These agreements contain a mechanism for dispute settlement by arbitration, which is strongly biased in favour of foreign investors.