Rules of investment. The rules of investment are likely to have impact on labor conditions, given the fact that such rules are modified in order to facilitate foreign investment and a key component of this strategy is lowering labor costs. The agreement includes several investment provisions in order to establish a stable legal framework for US investors in Colombia. It was conceived of as a way to protect all forms of investment, including enterprises, debt, concessions, as well as intellectual property rights. Through the “Most favored nation” provision, the agreement gives the investors the right to establish, acquire and operate investments in Colombia, on equal footing with local investors. As the official document of the CTPA puts it, the investment rules that were approved are more generous with foreign investors than the provisions of the WTO30. Clearly, this goes against national sovereignty and against the possibility of the state to intervene in favor or national development. No doubt, some of the most harmful provisions in this regard are those concerned with international dispute settlement. According to the Colombian government, the objective of such a mechanism is that a group of specialists solve in an “impartial and transparent” the differences resulting from a trade relation31. However, what is true is that the US was able to impose private international tribunals, controlled by its multinationals, as a mechanism to solve investors- state disputes. This mechanism includes submission of claims to arbitration, selection of arbitrators, conduct of the arbitration and transparency of the arbitral proceedings. As the text puts it: The investor protections in the Investment Chapter are backed by a transparent, binding international arbitration mechanism, under which investors may, at their own initiative, bring claims against a government for an alleged breach of the chapter32. With this provision, the power of the state is subordinated to the interests of transnational companies, which means that these ones could sue the state for approving a law that these companies consider detrimental to their expected profits. Thus, the approval of a minimum wage increase or a law of environmental protection by the Colombian government could lead a foreign company to sue the government in international tribunals. By the same token, if the company decides that its activity or its image have been affected by state policies, the company could denounce the state to the internation...
