Part 1: The Amer­i­c­as

By Akeem Lopez

In­tro­duc­tion:

On Feb­ru­ary 3rd, 2026, it was an­nounced that the overn­ments of Trinidad and To­ba­go (‘T&T’) and the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates signed an Agree­ment for the Pro­mo­tion and Rec­i­p­ro­cal Pro­tec­tion of In­vest­ment. Though wel­come news, it is wor­thy to bear in mind that this agree­ment is but one of many which af­ford var­i­ous ben­e­fits to T&T in­vestors. In this mul­ti-part se­ries, we dis­cuss the var­i­ous in­vest­ment pro­tec­tion agree­ments (al­so com­mon­ly re­ferred to as bi­lat­er­al in­vest­ment treaties) to which T&T is par­ty and pro­vide a high-lev­el overview of some of the key pro­vi­sions of such agree­ments, in­clud­ing the rights and ben­e­fits avail­able to T&T in­vestors.

Unit­ed States

The gov­ern­ments of the Unit­ed States (‘US’) and T&T signed The Treaty Con­cern­ing the En­cour­age­ment and Rec­i­p­ro­cal Pro­tec­tion of In­vest­ment (with An­nex and Pro­to­col) (the ‘US-TT Treaty’) on Sep­tem­ber 26th, 1994.

The types of in­vest­ments cov­ered un­der the US-TT Treaty, in­clude any in­vest­ment of a T&T na­tion­al or com­pa­ny in the ter­ri­to­ry of the Unit­ed States and in­cludes in­vest­ments tak­ing var­i­ous forms in­clud­ing: a com­pa­ny; shares, stock, bonds, con­trac­tu­al rights, tan­gi­ble prop­er­ty, in­clud­ing re­al prop­er­ty and in­tan­gi­ble prop­er­ty, in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty, and li­cens­es or per­mits.

Such cov­ered in­vest­ments by a T&T na­tion­al or com­pa­ny in the Unit­ed States are en­ti­tled to treat­ment that is no less favourable than that ac­cord­ed to:

(i) in­vest­ments in the US by US na­tion­als or com­pa­nies (com­mon­ly re­ferred to as na­tion­al treat­ment) or

(ii) in­vest­ments in the US by na­tion­als or com­pa­nies of a third coun­try (com­mon­ly re­ferred to as most favoured na­tion treat­ment).

Ex­cep­tions:

De­spite these gen­er­al oblig­a­tions of the US, the An­nex con­tains cer­tain agreed up­on ex­cep­tions where­by the US is en­ti­tled to not af­ford (or re­frain from pro­vid­ing) na­tion­al treat­ment or most favoured na­tion treat­ment to cer­tain in­vest­ments made by T&T in­vestors.

For one, the US is en­ti­tled to not af­ford na­tion­al treat­ment to in­vest­ments by T&T na­tion­als or com­pa­nies in the fol­low­ing sec­tors or mat­ters: atom­ic en­er­gy; cus­tom­house bro­kers; li­cences for broad­cast; com­mon car­ri­er; aero­nau­ti­cal ra­dio sta­tions; satel­lite com­mu­ni­ca­tions; sub­si­dies or grants (in­clud­ing gov­ern­ment sup­port­ed loans); guar­an­tees and in­sur­ance; cer­tain mat­ters ex­empt­ed un­der the North Amer­i­can Free Trade Agree­ment (now the U.S-Mex­i­co-Cana­da-Agree­ment (‘USM­CA’)) and the land­ing of sub­marines. Ad­di­tion­al sec­tors in which the US is en­ti­tled to not af­ford na­tion­al treat­ment and most favoured na­tion treat­ment to in­vest­ments by T&T na­tion­als or com­pa­nies in­clude fish­eries and air and mar­itime trans­port and re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ties.

Fur­ther­more, the Unit­ed States is en­ti­tled to not af­ford na­tion­al treat­ment or most favoured na­tion treat­ment to in­vest­ments by T&T na­tion­als or com­pa­nies in bank­ing, in­sur­ance, se­cu­ri­ties and oth­er fi­nan­cial ser­vices. How­ev­er, any such in­vest­ment by a T&T na­tion­al or com­pa­ny in such ser­vices must be treat­ed no less favourablly than treat­ment which the US is re­quired to give to any oth­er par­ty to USM­CA (i.e. Mex­i­co and Cana­da).

Com­pen­sa­tion on ex­pro­pri­a­tion,

war or civ­il un­rest:

The US-TT Treaty pro­hibits the ex­pro­pri­a­tion or na­tion­al­i­sa­tion of any cov­ered in­vest­ment un­less such ex­pro­pri­a­tion or na­tion­al­i­sa­tion: (i) is for a pub­lic pur­pose; (ii) is non-dis­crim­i­na­to­ry; (iii) pro­vides for ad­e­quate and ef­fec­tive com­pen­sa­tion to be paid prompt­ly; and (iv) is ef­fect­ed in ac­cor­dance with due process and fair and eq­ui­table treat­ment.

A T&T na­tion­al or com­pa­ny with a cov­ered in­vest­ment in the US is al­so en­ti­tled to com­pen­sa­tion if their in­vest­ment los­es val­ue ow­ing to war or oth­er armed con­flict, rev­o­lu­tion, na­tion­al emer­gency, in­sur­rec­tion, civ­il dis­tur­bance or sim­i­lar events and such loss re­sults from (i) the seizure of all or part the in­vest­ment by US forces or (ii) de­struc­tion of all or part of the in­vest­ment by US forces that was not nec­es­sar­i­ly re­quired.

Em­ploy­ment of na­tion­als:

Ar­ti­cle VII of the US-TT Treaty af­fords T&T na­tion­als a right to en­ter and re­main in the US for the pur­pose of es­tab­lish­ing, de­vel­op­ing, ad­min­is­ter­ing or ad­vis­ing on an in­vest­ment in the US for which a sub­stan­tial amount of cap­i­tal has been or is in the process of be­ing com­mit­ted by ei­ther the na­tion­al them­selves or by a T&T com­pa­ny which em­ploys them. Cov­ered in­vest­ments by T&T na­tion­als or com­pa­nies are al­so en­ti­tled to hire top man­age­r­i­al per­son­nel of their choice, re­gard­less of na­tion­al­i­ty. These rights are, how­ev­er, al­ways sub­ject to US im­mi­gra­tion laws.

Dis­pute res­o­lu­tion:

Ar­ti­cles IX of the US-TT Treaty pro­vides the nec­es­sary mech­a­nisms for the res­o­lu­tion of dis­putes re­lat­ed to any in­vest­ment au­tho­ri­sa­tion, in­vest­ment agree­ment or breach of any right con­ferred by the US-TT Treaty. Here, dis­putes can be set­tled ei­ther in lo­cal courts or by bind­ing in­ter­na­tion­al ar­bi­tra­tion un­der spe­cialised fo­ra such as the In­ter­na­tion­al Cen­tre for Set­tle­ment of In­vest­ment Dis­putes (‘IC­SID’), the IC­SID Ad­di­tion­al Fa­cil­i­ty and the Unit­ed Na­tions Com­mis­sion on In­ter­na­tion­al Trade Law (‘UNCI­TRAL’), or un­der any oth­er ar­bi­tra­tion rules mu­tu­al­ly agreed up­on.

Cana­da

The Agree­ment for the Rec­i­p­ro­cal Pro­mo­tion and Pro­tec­tion of In­vest­ments be­tween Cana­da and T&T (the ‘Cana­da-TT Agree­ment’) be­came ef­fec­tive on Ju­ly 8th, 1996.

The Cana­da-TT Agree­ment en­ti­tles T&T in­vestors to es­tab­lish or ac­quire an en­ter­prise or ac­quire shares in any en­ter­prise on a ba­sis that is no less fa­vor­able than that af­ford­ed to Cana­di­an in­vestors or in­vestors from any oth­er third coun­try. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, T&T in­vestors are en­ti­tled to treat­ment no less fa­vor­able than that af­ford­ed to Cana­di­an in­vestors in re­la­tion to the ex­pan­sion, man­age­ment, con­duct, op­er­a­tion, sale or dis­po­si­tion of their in­vest­ments in Cana­da.

TT in­vestors, how­ev­er, are not en­ti­tled to na­tion­al treat­ment in re­spect of any mea­sure that af­fords pref­er­en­tial treat­ment to Cana­di­an in­vestors:

• That ex­ist­ed be­fore the Cana­da-TT Agree­ment be­came ef­fec­tive; and

• That was im­ple­ment­ed af­ter the Cana­da-TT Agree­ment be­came ef­fec­tive that lim­its for­eign own­er­ship in trans­ac­tions in­volv­ing the sale of shares or as­sets of Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment en­ti­ties or im­pos­es na­tion­al­i­ty re­quire­ments on se­nior man­age­ment and board mem­bers of such en­ti­ties.

In­vest­ments by T&T in­vestors or re­turns on such in­vest­ments are al­so en­ti­tled to treat­ment that is no less fa­vor­able than that af­ford­ed to in­vest­ments or re­turns of in­vestors from any third coun­try. Fur­ther­more, TT in­vestors are en­ti­tled to treat­ment that is no less fa­vor­able than that af­ford­ed to in­vestors of any third coun­try in re­la­tion to the man­age­ment, use, en­joy­ment or dis­pos­al of their in­vest­ments or their re­turns on such in­vest­ments.

Ex­cep­tions:

T&T in­vestors are not, how­ev­er, en­ti­tled to treat­ment af­ford­ed to in­vestors of third coun­tries pur­suant to any bi­lat­er­al agree­ment to which Cana­da is par­ty: (i) es­tab­lish­ing a free trade area, com­mon mar­ket or cus­toms union; (ii) ne­go­ti­at­ed with­in the frame­work of World Trade Or­ga­ni­za­tion; or (iii) re­lat­ed to avi­a­tion, telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions, fish­eries, mar­itime mat­ters and fi­nan­cial ser­vices.

Cana­da al­so has the right to make fur­ther ex­cep­tions to any en­ti­tle­ment of a T&T in­vestor in mat­ters re­lat­ed to: (i) so­cial ser­vices; (ii) ser­vices in any oth­er sec­tor; (iii) gov­ern­ment se­cu­ri­ties; (iv) res­i­den­cy re­quire­ments for own­er­ship of ocean­front land; and (v) mea­sures im­ple­ment­ing the North­west Ter­ri­to­ries and the Yukon Oil and Gas Ac­cords.

Ben­e­fits af­ford­ed to T&T in­vestors un­der the Cana­da-TT Agree­ment al­so do not ap­ply to the fol­low­ing mat­ters: (i) pro­cure­ment by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment or by a Cana­di­an state en­ter­prise; (ii) sub­si­dies or grants pro­vid­ed by the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment or by a Cana­di­an state en­ter­prise; and (iii) any mea­sure which af­fords pref­er­ences or rights to the abo­rig­i­nal (in­dige­nous) peo­ples of Cana­da.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, Cana­da can adopt rea­son­able mea­sures against in­vest­ments by T&T na­tion­als in the fi­nan­cial ser­vices in­dus­try for:

• The pro­tec­tion of in­vestors, de­pos­i­tors, fi­nan­cial mar­ket par­tic­i­pants, pol­i­cy-hold­ers, pol­i­cy-claimants or per­sons to whom a fidu­cia­ry du­ty is owed by a fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion;

• The main­te­nance of the safe­ty, sound­ness, in­tegri­ty or fi­nan­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tions; and

• En­sur­ing the in­tegri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty of the Cana­di­an fi­nan­cial sys­tem.

Com­pen­sa­tion for lost in­vest­ment:

The Cana­da-TT Agree­ment fur­ther pro­vides for the com­pen­sa­tion of T&T in­vestors for any in­vest­ment or re­turn which is lost due to armed con­flict, na­tion­al emer­gency, nat­ur­al dis­as­ter or oth­er­wise na­tion­alised or ex­pro­pri­at­ed.

Dis­pute Res­o­lu­tion:

Un­der the Cana­da-TT Agree­ment, in­vestor-state dis­putes are to be set­tled by in­ter­na­tion­al ar­bi­tra­tion un­der IC­SID, the IC­SID Ad­di­tion­al Fa­cil­i­ty and UNCI­TRAL. Such dis­putes are to be re­solved ac­cord­ing to the pro­vi­sions of the Cana­da-TT Agree­ment and any ap­plic­a­ble rules of in­ter­na­tion­al law.

Akeem Lopez is an As­so­ciate at M. Hamel-Smith & Co. He can be reached at mhs@trinidad­law.com.

Dis­claimer: This col­umn con­tains gen­er­al in­for­ma­tion on le­gal top­ics and does not con­sti­tute le­gal ad­vice.

Latin Amer­i­ca

T&T is al­so par­ty to in­vest­ment pro­tec­tion agree­ments with Mex­i­co, Guatemala and Cu­ba.

The Agree­ment for Rec­i­p­ro­cal Pro­mo­tion and Pro­tec­tion of In­vest­ments be­tween Mex­i­co and T&T, the Agree­ment on Rec­i­p­ro­cal Pro­mo­tion and Pro­tec­tion of In­vest­ments be­tween Guatemala and T&T and the Agree­ment on Rec­i­p­ro­cal Pro­mo­tion and Pro­tec­tion of In­vest­ments be­tween Cu­ba and T&T each en­ti­tle the in­vest­ments of a T&T na­tion­al or com­pa­ny and such TT na­tion­al or com­pa­ny them­selves, to na­tion­al treat­ment in Mex­i­co, Guatemala and Cu­ba with re­spect to the man­age­ment, main­te­nance, use, en­joy­ment or dis­po­si­tion of in­vest­ments.

In­vest­ments of T&T na­tion­als or com­pa­nies and T&T na­tion­als and com­pa­nies them­selves are al­so en­ti­tled to treat­ment in Mex­i­co, Guatemala and Cu­ba that is no less favourable than that giv­en to in­vestors from those coun­tries and in­vest­ments of an in­vestor from a third par­ty coun­try or any in­vest­ment by a third par­ty coun­try it­self.

The agree­ments with Mex­i­co, Guatemala and Cu­ba al­so en­ti­tle a T&T in­vestor to com­pen­sa­tion if their in­vest­ment is na­tion­alised or ex­pro­pri­at­ed and al­so set out the re­quire­ments of such com­pen­sa­tion. The agree­ments fur­ther set out the var­i­ous means through which dis­putes can be set­tled and as­so­ci­at­ed pro­ce­dures. Dis­pute res­o­lu­tion mea­sures in the case of in­vestor-state dis­putes, sim­i­lar to the US and Cana­da, in­clude ar­bi­tra­tion un­der IC­SID, the IC­SID Ad­di­tion­al Fa­cil­i­ty, the In­ter­na­tion­al Cham­ber of Com­merce, UNCI­TRAL, or any oth­er ar­bi­tra­tion rules mu­tu­al­ly agreed to by the par­ties.

No­tably, a unique fea­ture of the agree­ments with Mex­i­co and Guatemala is that they re­strict the waiv­ing or re­lax­ation of any re­quire­ment un­der do­mes­tic en­vi­ron­men­tal leg­is­la­tion as an in­duce­ment for in­vest­ment in their re­spec­tive coun­tries.

Con­clu­sion:

The next in­stall­ment of this se­ries will seek to pro­vide a sim­i­lar overview of oth­er in­vest­ment pro­tec­tion agree­ments (and the ben­e­fits there­un­der) to which T&T in­vestors can avail them­selves, with par­tic­u­lar fo­cus on Eu­rope.