BIT by bit: How new India-UAE trade pact may reset future investment talks

India's revised approach to bilateral trade now includes a three-year local remedy clause in the UAE pact which could impact future investment

When India lost the arbitration case with Australian mining company White Industries in 2011, the first such defeat, it prompted a reassessment of its approach towards investment treaties, then known as Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreements (BIPAs).

India subsequently came up with a model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) document in December 2015 and unilaterally terminated BIPAs with 77 countries, asking them, including the European Union, to renegotiate based on the model BIT.

The key contentious issue was the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism, under which an investor can drag a country to international arbitration if it finds the