Legal and Economic Implications of International Trade Agreements on Investments Dispute Resolution

International trade agreements are major avenues for facilitating global economic growth, ensuring smooth supply chain management across the globe, and coordination of international relations among other social and economic activities among nations. However, such agreements and activities thereof are inevitably prone to disagreements and violations of the guiding principles. Multilateral trade agreements, Bilateral Investment Treaties, and even Regional Trade Agreements often involve countries with economic, political, and legal backgrounds or trends that predisposes them to occasional disharmony with the provisions. It is the inevitability of the disharmony and disputes in the international trade agreements that moved commercial regulators like the World Trade Organization to come up with legal and alternative mechanisms for resolving the disputes. Nevertheless, the trade agreements are equally unique in terms of their provisions with potential impacts on arbitration as an established alternative mechanism for solving international investment disputes. This study sought to examine the possible economic and legal implications of international trade agreements, including bilateral investment treaties and regional trade agreements on arbitration of international investment disputes. It was informed by three specific objectives namely, analysis of the provisions and mechanisms of international trade agreements, assessing the effects of the international trade agreements on the legal framework governing investment dispute resolution, and examination of the economic consequences of investment dispute resolution under international trade agreements. Systematic review of relevant literature alongside case analysis were used as the research methods for the realization of the aforementioned objectives. Both bilateral investment treaties and regional trade agreements were establish to contain substantial and binding provisions most of which recognize and support arbitration in the resolution of their investment disputes. Multiple cases emanating from various trade agreements were established to have been settled through arbitral tribunals. Therefore, the study concludes by noting that different provisions of the international trade agreements have worked towards strengthening the position of arbitration as a mechanism of solving international investment disputes.