Argentina has settled more than half of the 36 cases that multinational companies have filed against it at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.
Most of the claims against it – which total $17 billion – stem from the breach of commercial contracts during the country’s severe economic crisis of 2001/02, when it repudiated on its sovereign debt, sharply devalued the peso and put in place emergency economic measures.
At least 17 of the cases before Icsid have now been settled or suspended, as a result of direct out-of-court bilateral negotiations with the companies. The Argentine government managed to get the claims withdrawn in exchange for concession extensions, tariff increases, subsidies and tax exemptions.
Esteban Fernández Medrano, a partner at economic...
