Trade deals, investment arbitration, underdogs - some weekend readings

Two good weekend readings on international trade and investment issues:

1. What is in store for trade in the context of the US-China trade deal - smaller countries will be the losers. Edward Alden writes in the East Asia Forum:

The real danger of the new agreement, however, is that it replaces a trading system based largely on agreed rules with one based purely on negotiating muscle. The United States long championed a rules-based system, but is now discarding it in favour of a power-based system where the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.

2. ISDS and a new framework in RCEP - Prabhash Ranjan speaks about the underdog in international investment arbitration in the context of the backlash against ISDS provisions.

For the sustainability of the liberal internationalism project to advance international rule of law, it has to be embedded in the social order. This compromise is critical to stem the rise of populism where populist leaders increasingly seek to break free from international institutional controls. A BIT and ISDS framework based on normativity of international rule of law and embedded liberalism will ensure that the interests of the underdogs – hapless investor subjected to whimsical State behaviour and States failing to protect their interests before over-powered foreign investors – shall be protected. This embedded liberal internationalism on foreign investment will be like a new social compact between the market and the State and civil society consistent with Joseph Stiglitz’s template of progressive capitalism to replace neoliberalism.