A foreign investment promotion and protection agreement (FIPA) is a bilateral treaty that promotes investment between two countries by creating reciprocal rights and protections, in particular against discriminatory treatment, treatment that is not fair and equitable, and other harmful government measures including expropriations and regulatory undertakings.
Recently, Canada has been very actively negotiating FIPAs, which are also referred to as bilateral investment treaties (BITs). This is in a bid to catch up on Canada`s other trading partners who have in place many more BITs than does Canada.
During the same time period in the 1990s in which Canada implemented 22 such treaties, the number negotiated worldwide surged from 398 to 1,857. The current number of BITs implemented worldwide is estimated at close to 2,700, which is in excess of the number of double taxation treaties. Canada currently has 25 FIPAs in force with Argentina, Armenia, Barbados, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Hungary, Jordan, Latvia, Lebanon, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Canada has concluded but not yet ratified FIPAs with another 15 countries: Albania, Bahrain, Bénin, Cameroon, China, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Kuwait, Madagascar, Mali, Moldova, Nigeria, Senegal, Serbia, and Zambia.
More recently, the Canadian government has focused on increasing FIPAs with African countries. As of 2011, Canadian companies have over $31 billion in African mining assets. As part of its plan to promote and protect Canadian investments abroad, Canada concluded, signed or brought into force FIPAs with 10 countries in 2013—a record for any single year. Seven of these were with African countries with the most recent being Cameroon on March 3, 2014.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
