'Look Beyond London, Paris' Arun Jaitley Urged for a New Approach for BRICS

NEW DELHI: Speaking at a conference on ‘International arbitration in Brics’, he said faster growth will return to emerging economies once the world emerges out of the current slowdown and the dispute resolution mechanism should be now perfect as trade between countries grows.

“Many countries fear, and have been suggesting, that the awards emerging out of these arbitration are at times loaded against the emerging economies.

Therefore, need has been felt to develop parallel arbitration centres across the world. Let alone London, let alone Paris, now we see Singapore emerging as an emerging arbitral centre,” Jaitley said.

“Therefore, for Brics nations to resolve trading disputes which may arise out of Brics nations, it is extremely important that we have to develop a mechanism.”

Jaitley suggested that the Brics countries should set up a task force comprising officials and experts to discuss and then set up an appropriate mechanism where these nations can have arbitral centres of their own.

Speaking at the event, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das said: “Structural bias in favour of developed nations in international arbitration must end while developing nations should build capacity instead of playing victim.” He said forum shopping should end. “India is already moving towards ending treaty shopping in investment,” Das said.

For dispute settlement, the first recourse should be to reach out to local courts and if the local courts fail to deliver within five years, arbitration should be resorted to, Das added.