The UK government has just published its long-awaited trade strategy – and ministers have finally nailed their colours to the mast on ‘corporate courts’.
Many of you have been with us every step of the way in the long years campaigning against corporate courts – aka investor-state dispute settlement or ISDS – including celebrating the win of a UK exit from the Energy Charter Treaty.
Shockingly, the new strategy trots out regressive pro-ISDS lines, failing to address the dangers of these anti-democratic tribunals and committing merely to support “transparency”. (1)
We’ve long made the toxic workings of this regime crystal clear to policymakers – so this is a mammoth row-back from the Labour Party’s once-strong critique of ISDS. Giving foreign investors the power to sue for millions of pounds worth of public funds, over legitimate policy changes, is an affront to democracy that in no way suits UK interests.
As the government legislates over everything from phasing out fossil fuels to managing our water utilities, our representatives must be free to act in the public interest and not be held to ransom by unaccountable corporations. Can you help us tell the UK to finally call time on ISDS?
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ISDS in trade deals also means locking our trading partners in the global south into fossil fuel dependence and deterring action on human rights, as they are scared off by the threat of corporate claims.
As I write, the government is negotiating an investment treaty with India – and it will contain corporate courts. If ISDS is too risky in the Energy Charter Treaty, why is the government now entrenching this tool of corporate power to the detriment of ordinary people both here in and in India?
Corporate courts are too dangerous an issue for an inconsistent position. Over 10,000 of us have already called on the trade minister to scrap the UK-Colombia investment deal as Colombia is sued over its protections of Indigenous people and the environment – and our pressure has already led ministers to say in March that they will consider ISDS “on a case-by-case basis.” (2)
We’re closer to securing this win for Colombia – but we need to push the UK to reject ISDS across the board. Will you sign the petition for a government commitment to no corporate courts in future agreements and a review of existing deals?
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As the UK sets out its stall on trade, thank you for helping us hold the government to account.
In solidarity,
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Cleodie Rickard
Trade campaigner at Global Justice Now
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Notes
1. UK Government, The UK’s trade strategy, June 2025
2. UK Parliament, Lords chamber, India and South East Asia: Free Trade Agreements, 6 March 2025
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