Argentina Will Withdraw from the ICSID Convention

Argentina has announced that it will withdraw from the ICSID Convention, following in the footsteps of other South American nations, such as Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. The chief legal advisor to Argentine’s Treasury is leading this project, and he called ICSID “a tribunal of butchers” that always favors multinational companies. Argentina currently faces 43 claims, far more than any other State, with an overall value of approximately $65 billion, most recently including an arbitration filed by the Spanish company Repsol after president Cristina Fernandez announced it would take Repsol’s majority stake in the energy giant YPF. Whether this will have an impact on investment in Argentina remains to be seen. Please note, however, that no direct correlation between ICSID membership and inward investment has ever been firmly established.