On 3 July, the European Commission submitted to the EU Council a negotiating mandate with a view to participating in trade negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development in the autumn. These negotiating directives, once validated by the EU Council, will enable the EU to launch new plurilateral negotiations within the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Key plurilateral subjects
At the end of the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in December 2017, 70 WTO members, including the EU, adopted a declaration to develop a multilateral framework for facilitating investment for development.
In addition to the issues from the Doha Development Agenda (‘DDA’) - agriculture, industrial products and services - coalitions of voluntary countries identified several promising themes in Buenos Aires, including electronic commerce (see EUROPE 12275/22, 12253/7) and domestic regulation of services (see EUROPE 12262/13), paving the way for more dynamic plurilateral negotiations than those conducted within the DDA.
Facilitating sustainable investment
Since 2019, talks on this subject have entered a new phase which, in the autumn, should lead to a first round of negotiations.
While the subject of investment is covered by the mandate given by the EU Council to the Commission under the Doha Development Agenda, “negotiations on investment facilitation could be innovative in some respects and could focus on topics where the EU has specific priorities”, according to the Commission, which therefore recommends that the EU Council adopt additional negotiating directives on this point.
According to the EU, the negotiations will aim to facilitate foreign direct investment by investors and companies, including SMEs, through a more transparent, efficient and predictable investment climate (excluding short-term capital movements). They will aim to provide guarantees for international investment that are conducive to sustainable development, while preserving the ability of host countries to regulate the activity of investors in their countries.
This multilateral investment facilitation framework would thus be the counterpart to the agreement on trade facilitation implemented in 2017 (see EUROPE 11731/21).
To read the Commission's recommendation: https://bit.ly/2Xy5gwD (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)