EU and US trade negotiators completed the fourth round of trade talks on Friday (14 March), but were tight-lipped after Germany joined France in calling for controversial rules on investor rights to be left out of an agreement. The mechanism, known as investor state dispute settlement (ISDS), allows companies to take legal action against governments if their decisions risk undermining their investments. “From the perspective of the (German) federal government, US investors in the EU have sufficient legal protection in the national courts,” economic affairs minister Brigitte Zypries told the Bundestag on Wednesday (12 March). …
