Case 1:19-Cv-02424-TNM Document 36-3 Filed 12/21/20 Page 2 of 212
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Case 1:19-cv-02424-TNM Document 36-3 Filed 12/21/20 Page 2 of 212 INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR SETTLEMENT OF INVESTMENT DISPUTES ICSID CASE NO. ARB/12/1 TETHYAN COPPER COMPANY PTY LIMITED Claimant -v- ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN Respondent RESPONDENT’S REJOINDER ON LIABILITY AND REPLY ON JURISDICTION, ADMISSIBILITY AND COUNTERCLAIMS 25 August 2014 " " [original emphasis] (Page 60 of CE-83: CRU Presentation on the Copper Market, 27 January 2010) Case 1:19-cv-02424-TNM Document 36-3 Filed 12/21/20 Page 3 of 212 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................7 A. FACTS .......................................................................................................... 7 B. JURISDICTION AND ADMISSIBILITY ................................................... 10 C. STATE RESPONSIBILITY ........................................................................ 11 D. LIABILITY ................................................................................................. 12 E. DUTY OF REPARATION AND CAUSATION.......................................... 15 F. COUNTERCLAIMS ................................................................................... 16 II. STATEMENT OF FACTS .................................................................................... 18 A. THE MINERAL AGREEMENT NEGOTATIONS (REVISITED) .............. 18 (1) The Claimant sought to procure an automatic “right to mine” without the need to satisfy the requirements of the BMR, which was legally impossible .......................................................................................... 18 (2) The Claimant repeatedly evaded the Governments’ core demand for a smelter/refinery .................................................................................. 22 (3) The Governments continued to negotiate with the Claimant in 2010 and even 2011 ........................................................................................... 25 B. THE CLAIMANT’S FEASIBILITY STUDY WAS WOEFULLY INADEQUATE ................................................................................................... 27 (1) The Feasibility Study was late ............................................................ 28 (2) The Feasibility Study was incomplete................................................. 30 (3) The Feasibility Study failed to demonstrate a profitable project .......... 31 (4) The Feasibility Study failed to examine or cost the security risks of the slurry pipeline, or address the need for governmental approvals.......... 37 (5) The Feasibility Study failed to demonstrate a proven water source...... 42 (6) The Feasibility Study failed to provide, or even discuss, value addition .. ............................................................................................. 45 C. THE REJECTION OF THE MINING LEASE APPLICATION WAS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE BMR AND UNSURPRISING............................... 47 (1) The Feasibility Study (and therefore the Mining Lease Application) was incomplete.......................................................................................... 49 (2) The Mining Lease Application was an attempt at a ‘land grab’ ........... 51 (3) The Mining Lease Application failed to provide ‘value addition’ ........ 53 (4) The proposals in the Mining Lease Application were not satisfactory, and the grant of the Mining Lease was not in the interests of Balochistan 56 (5) Feasibility Study failed to demonstrate that the mine could be profitably developed and operated....................................................................... 58 2 Case 1:19-cv-02424-TNM Document 36-3 Filed 12/21/20 Page 4 of 212 D. THERE WAS NO PLOT TO OUST THE CLAIMANT .............................. 59 (1) Balochistan’s Reko Diq Project was limited to refining....................... 60 (2) MCC’s expression of interest in mining Reko Diq was not entertained by the Respondent and, in any event, reveals MCC’s, not the Respondent’s, desire to oust the Claimant ........................................... 68 (3) The MMDD took over the BDA’s, not the Claimant’s, operations ...... 70 (4) The Cabinet Decision of December 2009 was not definitive and the door was left open to the Claimant mining Reko Diq .................................. 71 E. THE SUPREME COURT HAS ALREADY DETERMINED THAT THE CHEJVA AGREEMENTS ARE “ILLEGAL, VOID AND NON EST”................. 77 III. JURISDICTION AND ADMISSIBILITY............................................................ 81 A. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 81 B. THE TRIBUNAL DOES NOT HAVE JURISDICTION OVER THE CLAIMANT’S CLAIMS IN THIS ARBITRATION............................................ 84 (1) The Claimant’s vague articulation of its “investment” belies the fact that its purported “assets” are contractual in nature .................................... 84 (2) The Claimant does not have an “investment” under the BIT................ 87 a) The Claimant has failed to demonstrate that it has an “asset” within the meaning of Article 1(1)(a)................................................ 88 b) Even if the Claimant has an “asset”, which is denied, such asset does not constitute an “investment” because it was not admitted “subject to [the] laws and investment policies” of Pakistan ............... 99 i. The Claimant does not satisfy the legality requirement in Article 1(1)(a) of the BIT .......................................... 99 ii. The Claimant’s misconceived attempt to narrow the scope of the legality requirement in Article 1(1)(a) of the BIT must fail.................................................................. 104 (3) The dispute submitted to this Tribunal concerning the rejection of the Mining Lease Application does not relate to an “investment”, as required by Article 13 of the BIT...................................................... 110 C. THE CLAIMANT’S CLAIMS ARE INADMISSIBLE.............................. 110 (1) The Claimant has already submitted all contractual issues to the ICC tribunal ........................................................................................... 110 (2) The Claimant’s claims are manifestly without legal merit because it is precluded from re-litigating the contractual issues which have already been determined by the Supreme Court of Pakistan........................... 111 D. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 113 IV. STATE RESPONSIBILITY AND ATTRIBUTION .......................................... 115 3 Case 1:19-cv-02424-TNM Document 36-3 Filed 12/21/20 Page 5 of 212 A. THE RESPONDENT ONLY BEARS RESPONSIBILITY IF THE CLAIMANT SHOWS THAT IT MADE AN “INVESTMENT”, WHICH WAS SUBJECTED TO A WRONGFUL ACT, ATTRIBUTABLE TO THE RESPONDENT, AND IN BREACH OF THE BIT ............................................ 115 B. THE RESPONDENT IS NOT A PARTY TO THE CHEJVA AGREEMENTS .................................................................................................................. 117 V. LIABILITY.......................................................................................................... 121 A. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 121 B. THE RESPONDENT DID NOT BREACH THE FAIR AND EQUITABLE TREATMENT OBLIGATION IN ARTICLE 3(2) OF THE BIT ....................... 121 (1) The Claimant is unable to show that its purported investment was the subject of any alleged wrongful conduct by the Respondent which was in breach of the fair and equitable treatment obligation ..................... 122 (2) The threshold for breach of the fair and equitable treatment obligation proposed by the Claimant is wrong; the threshold is in fact significantly higher ........................................................................................... 123 (3) The Claimant’s allegations are insufficient to substantiate a finding that the Respondent has breached the fair and equitable treatment obligation. ........................................................................................... 128 a) A legitimate expectation does not arise from the Governments’ so-called “assurances” invoked by the Claimant in this case ........... 128 i. The Respondent cannot be bound by expectations arising out of the CHEJVA agreements......................................... 129 ii. No representations were made that reduced “routine Government requirements” in the CHEJVA to mere administrative niceties............................................. 132 iii. No purported “assurance” could have legitimately been construed as trumping the BMR, as the Respondent made clear any attempt to do so would have been legally impossible ................................................... 138 b) In any event the impugned conduct of the Respondent did not breach the fair and equitable treatment obligation ........................... 144 i. There were legitimate reasons for the Licensing Authority to reject the Mining Lease Application........................ 144 ii. There was no plan on the part of the Respondent or Balochistan to “oust TCCA” from Reko Diq to implement Balochistan’s own project ....................................... 150 iii. The Claimant was not denied due process rights ................. 151 iv. The Respondent’s and Balochistan’s conduct in the Supreme Court proceedings and the Supreme Court’s Judgment 4