Summary

Source: icsid.worldbank.org

CLAIMANT'S MEMORIAL ON JURISDICTION AND MERITS

A. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. The Claimant's investment in Trinidad and Tobago involved designing and constructing the La Brea aluminium smelter complex (Project). In 2012, the Respondent (Trinidad and Tobago or State) terminated the Project for political reasons. Since that time, the State has repeatedly made false assurances that it will compensate the Claimant (China Machinery Engineering Corporation or CMEC) for the termination of the Project and related contractual rights. To this day, the State has not paid any compensation. The State's decade-long avoidance of its obligations has destroyed the Claimant's investment and is wrongful under international law.

2. The State's egregious treatment of CMEC fell so far short of any acceptable standard that even Trinidad and Tobago's current Prime Minister, the Honourable Dr Keith Rowley, saw a need to draw public attention to it. On 12 October 2022, the Prime Minister delivered a public address in which he noted that:

2.1 the prior Trinidad and Tobago government "improperly shut down" and "politically extinguished" the aluminium smelter project;

2.2 CMEC was thereafter "chased out" of the country by the prior government;

2.3 when CMEC requested payment for the work it had carried out, the prior government "did other things except deal with it", simply "danced around it", or "ignored" CMEC's claims; and

2.4 the prior government did not want the people of Trinidad and Tobago to know about this conduct because it constituted "political action" in respect of which there would be a "cost".

3. While this observation by the Prime Minister speaks for itself, an important note in the context of these proceedings is that international law attributes particular probative value to such statements. This Memorial will show that the Prime Minister's words were true in fact and will demonstrate that the State's conduct violated the obligations it owed to CMEC under the 2002 Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments (BIT).

4. As a result of this breach of international law by Trinidad and Tobago, CMEC suffered losses including the full loss of amounts due, loss of profit and overhead, and interest, which are conservatively estimated at US $156,022,913.

5. Unless otherwise indicated, capitalised terms used in this Memorial have the meanings ascribed to them in the Claimant's Request for Arbitration dated 27 March 2023 (Request for Arbitration).

...