Tereposky & DeRose had the privilege of assisting the Secretaría de Economía successfully represent Mexico in an arbitration initiated by Access Business Group LLC seeking more than US$2.7 billion plus interest and costs. The outcome of this arbitration is a significant achievement for the Mexican State. It establishes an important precedent regarding the inadmissibility of NAFTA claims incorrectly brought under the transitional procedures in Annex 14-C of the USMCA.

In April 2023 the company filed a NAFTA claim, through Annex 14-C of the USMCA, with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Access’s claim was based on the alleged expropriation of farmland in the Mexican State of Jalisco. Access claimed that in July 2022, the Secretariat of Agrarian, Territorial and Urban Development (SEDATU) handed the farmland over to an ejido (local communal landowners) thereby breaching the provisions in NAFTA Chapter 11 (Investment).

In August 2024, Mexico successfully bifurcated the arbitration into a preliminary phase to address its jurisdictional objections. On 21 November 2025, the Arbitral Tribunal by majority ruled in favour of Mexico, determining that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the dispute and dismissing the arbitration in its entirety. In essence, the Tribunal concluded that it did not have jurisdiction because the contested measures occurred more than two years after the termination of NAFTA meaning they could not be considered violations of obligations that were no longer in effect. In the Tribunal’s words, “Nothing in the terms of Annex 14-C indicates that the Contracting States extended the application of the substantive provisions of Section A of Chapter 11 beyond the termination of NAFTA”. In addition, the Tribunal ordered the claimant company to pay Mexico approximately US$1.3 million in arbitration costs and expenses.

The award has been published on the ICSID website.

Authors: Greg Tereposky, Dan Hohnstein and Maria Mateus.

Tereposky & DeRose LLP regularly acts as defense counsel in investment treaty arbitrations. If you have any questions about the foregoing subject, please do not hesitate to contact us.