Kuwait’s Agility gets new opportunity to arbitrate against Iraq, 13 FEB

 Kuwait’s Agility gets new opportunity to arbitrate against Iraq

Regarding its operations in Iraq, the Kuwaiti logistics business was given another chance to present its case before an arbitration panel under the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Agility filed a case in 2021 at the ICSID of the World Bank Group, claiming it lost more than $380 million in Iraq. However, the arbitration tribunal denied the claim.

In addition, Agility, one of the biggest logistics firms in the Gulf, was mandated by the arbitration tribunal to reimburse Iraq for almost $5 million in case-related expenses.

Agility said in a statement issued on Sunday that an ICSID committee had accepted its appeal and that, as a result, the earlier arbitration panel’s ruling had been partially revoked.

The Kuwaiti company also stated that the committee declared the 2021 ruling to be partially revoked. Agility will now be entitled to present its arguments to the arbitration tribunal once more thanks to this ruling.

The case began in 2017 when the company filed a request with the ICSID, claiming that Iraq had breached a bilateral agreement reached in 2015 between Kuwait and Iraq about the flow of investment and capital between the two nations and had indirectly confiscated its investments, which were worth over $380 million.

At the time, Agility stated that Iraq had denied it and its affiliates the right to appeal a 2014 ruling by the Communications and Media Commission (CMC) of Iraq that had terminated Agility’s ownership of Korek Telecom, an Erbil-based Kurdish mobile phone operator.