Abstract
Historically, foreign investment policies have been a fiercely contested issue for the international trade regime. The launch of discussions on investment facilitation under WTO auspices suggests greater willingness among some WTO members to discuss investment issues. The China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) provides a possible basis for negotiating investment policy disciplines in the WTO on a plurilateral basis. While the prospects for ratification of the CAI by the EU are uncertain, the CAI provides a baseline for possible investment rules in the WTO. Investment rules anchored both against the CAI outcomes and structured on a plurilateral basis are a logical part of a WTO resuscitation strategy.
Highlights
Foreign investment has been a fiercely contested issue for the international trade regime
We seek to explore whether the conclusion of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) between China and the European Union can offer a platform for framing negotiations on investment issues in the World Trade Organization (WTO)
Foreign investment issues have clearly become politically controversial in some developed states, not least during the Trump Administration in the U.S at least some of those concerns are covered within the CAI suggesting the possibility of some common foundation for a significant set of states parties (China, the European Union and the United States)
Summary
Foreign investment has been a fiercely contested issue for the international trade regime. Participation in a GVC holds out the promise of development spillovers at a lower entry cost than past strategies, those focused on industrialization.[4] Some of those same countries are increasingly dissatisfied with the BIT network (as are powerful actors like the European Union), especially with an assumption of pro-investor structural incentives and outcomes of investorstate arbitration. Against this backdrop, we seek to explore whether the conclusion of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) between China and the European Union can offer a platform for framing negotiations on investment issues in the WTO.
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