Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 April 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

Impact of the Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement on Irish-Canadian Trade and Relations: Discussion

Mr. Reuben East:

I will add a quick point in response to the Deputy s question on the Canadian and Irish courts. Canada certainly respects the Irish court system and Canadians are very proud, rightly so, of the Canadian court system. Nothing in CETA precludes an investor from pursuing a case before the domestic courts under the domestic law, as it provides. As I, hopefully, explained earlier, without recourse to an ICS and to that system, there would be no recourse, essentially, for an investor in regard to the obligations under the investment chapter, and one could not argue, for example, a breach of national treatment before the Canadian courts pursuant to the investment chapter. It is really important for Canada that our investors have the same type of recourse abroad as they would have domestically, so, for us, it is really important to have these core obligations to go with it and the ability to enforce those obligations. That is what the ICS does. Certainly, we are very proud of our domestic system and Ireland is rightly proud of its own domestic system for the courts, but this aspect of recourse is quite important.

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