Remarks by Susan K. Sell

The United States is pressing for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in both the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. These provisions would permit investors directly to challenge states’ policies and practices. As economic integration has proceeded apace, trade negotiations have become less about tariffs and more about domestic regulation. This integration increasingly is reaching much deeper into the domestic regulatory arena and threatens to disrupt carefully and democratically developed domestic regulations.