TWC Group settles with the Dominican Republic
By Elizabeth Whitsitt
February 14, 2010
TWC Group, Inc. and its affiliate Dominican Energy Holdings L.P have reached a settlement with the Dominican Republic, ending a dispute that began in 2007.
TWC had been seeking some US$ 680 million for alleged violations of the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).
In a joint letter issued on 30 June 2009 to a tribunal constituted under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, the parties announced that they had reached an agreement, and requested discontinuance of the arbitration proceedings. In its consent award made available to the public only recently, the tribunal accepted the parties’ request for discontinuance. Additionally the tribunal ordered that costs of the arbitration – which have been fixed at some EUR$ 212 thousand – be born equally between the parties.
The TWC Group did not respond to requests made by ITN for further information about the settlement.
As previously reported by ITN, in 2007 TCW’s French parent company, Société Générale, launched parallel arbitral proceedings against the Caribbean nation under a different treaty, the 2003 Dominican Republic-France bilateral investment treaty (DR-France BIT). In October 2008, an arbitral tribunal issued a decision on jurisdiction in which it allowed the arbitration to proceed to the merits phase of the dispute.
Sources:
Consent Award in TWC Group, Inc. v. Dominican Energy Holdings L.P. is available here: http://ita.law.uvic.ca/documents/TD-DRConsentAward_002.PDF
Procedural Order No. 4 in TWC Group, Inc. v. Dominican Energy Holdings L.P. is available here: http://ita.law.uvic.ca/documents/TD-DRPO4_002.pdf
Related ITN Reporting:
“Société Générale passes jurisdictional hurdle in dispute with Dominican Republic; controversy erupts over press release,” By Fernando Cabrera Diaz, Investment Treaty News (28 October 2008), available here: