Gary Hufbauer: Investor-State Dispute Settlement Controversy

Gary Clyde Hufbauer, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, explains the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Critics charge that ISDS will be used by foreign investors to weaken environmental, health and safety regulations in the US. Such concerns are far-fetched, Hufbauer says, explaining that the ISDS provision is identical to many past agreements that have protected in fact aimed at protecting investments from outright expropriation by governments.