TANZANIA CITES BIAS AS IT CHANGES LAWS GOVERNING ARBITRATION

Tanzania has moved to ensure that investor disputes are resolved locally after Attorney General Adelardus Kilangi pushed through parliament the Public Private Partnership (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

The key highlight of the bill is withdrawing the country from international arbitration bodies.

This means that investors in Tanzania can only seek recourse over disputes such as cancellation of licences, breach of contract, confiscation, expropriation, nationalisation and/or deprivation through local courts.

This is designed to end suits by foreign investors before international arbitration bodies.

The move comes in the wake of Tanzania’s recent loss of an appeal before Washington-based International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), where the Tanzania Electric Supply Company was ordered to pay Standard Chartered Bank $148.4 million for a breach of a power contract.

Mr Kilangi told Parliament that international bodies are biased, forcing the government to use its own courts, which are fair.

Although some legislators opposed the amendment on the basis that it was impinging upon the rights and freedoms of investors seeking redress for claims of contractual breaches by the government in neutral courts outside the country, its passing means that Tanzania is determined to push ahead with laws that give the government tighter control.

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