Good Progress in the Formal Negotiations for
an Investment Facilitation Agreement
Participants in the negotiations for an agreement on investment
facilitation for development made good progress in the third round of formal meetings
held on 9-10 November 2020. Delegations showed a very high level of engagement and
found common ground on various provisions of the informal consolidated text which
serves as the basis for the negotiation.
Over
the two-day meeting, participating delegations — currently 106 — engaged in a very
constructive discussion, with a view to achieving a concrete outcome by the 12th
WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) scheduled for next year.
The negotiation
saw delegations submitting new proposals and focusing on concrete wording for specific
provisions of the future agreement. They addressed the streamlining and speeding
up of administrative procedures, the types of mechanisms for contact/focal points,
and arrangements to enhance domestic coordination and cross-border cooperation.
They also discussed temporary entry for investment persons and the facilitation
of movement of businesspersons for investment purposes, the issues of transfer and
subrogation as well as cross-cutting matters, including responsible business conduct
and measures against corruption.
The coordinator,
Ambassador-designate of Chile Mathias Francke, updated
participants on the productive open-ended intersessional meeting held on 29 October
where delegations revised the wording suggested to reflect common ground on various
provisions of Section II (Transparency of Investment Measures) and Section III (Streamlining
and Speeding Up Administrative Procedures and Requirements) and to streamline the
consolidated text discussed so far.
With
another round of formal negotiations on 7-8 December and an informal open-ended
inter-sessional meeting scheduled for 23 and 27 November, the coordinator said the
process will keep moving ahead so that "collectively we can show concrete results,"
with a revised and streamlined consolidated text being circulated in late December.
The coordinator encouraged delegations to continue working bilaterally or in groups
in order to advance the negotiations and facilitate convergence.
Participants
in the structured discussions on investment facilitation for development officially
kick-started on 25 September
2020
formal negotiations to reach a multilateral agreement on this issue and held a second round of negotiations on 8-9
October.
The joint
initiative on investment facilitation for development is member-driven, transparent,
inclusive and open to all WTO members. It was launched at the 11th Ministerial Conference
held in December 2017 in Buenos Aires where proponents issued a Joint Ministerial Statement on Investment
Facilitation for Development, followed by a second Joint Statement on Investment Facilitation
for Development on 22 November 2019.
In the
context of the WTO, investment facilitation means the setting up of a more transparent,
efficient and investment-friendly business climate by making it easier for domestic
and foreign investors to invest, conduct their day-to-day business and expand their
existing investments.
The focus
on investment facilitation comes with the recognition that in today’s integrated
global economy, expanding investment flows, like trade flows, depend on simplifying,
speeding up and coordinating processes. Indeed, in many cases, the bottlenecks,
inefficiencies and uncertainties that investment facilitation seeks to address arise
from unnecessary red tape, bureaucratic overlap or out-of-date procedures which
can become costly impediments to investment.