CER Investment Protocol – a bit more extensive than one might think?

The Investment Protocol to CER (Protocol), signed on 16 February 2011, is a wide ranging treaty which adds a new dimension to trans-Tasman economic relations, the significance of which has not been fully grasped in the media.

One would be forgiven, based on the official announcements and recent commentary, for thinking that the Protocol is a short agreement to reciprocally raise screening thresholds for trans-Tasman investments. It does do this¹ but only in the Annexes, as a qualification to new rights extended in the substantive part of the Protocol.

The arguably more significant development is that the Protocol is a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) and – as such – accords trans-Tasman investors a suite of international law rights distinct from and additional to those enjoyed by domestic investors.  ​