wir
Dear WIN Members,
It is my pleasure to share with you UNCTAD's IIA Issues Note entitled: "
The rise of regionalism in international investment policymaking:
consolidation or complexity?"
Today, at least 110 countries are involved in 22 regional negotiations.
This follows the conclusion of eight regional IIAs during 2012, involving
49 countries from Asia, Europe, North and South America.
Regionalism brings challenges and opportunities. The current approach to
regionalism leads to a multiplication of treaty layers, making the network
of international obligations even more complex and prone to overlap and
inconsistency.
However, regionalism can also provide an opportunity for rationalization
of the IIA regime. A recent UNCTAD analysis of nine selected regional
negotiations found that they could replace close to ten per cent of
today's BITs network: if parties to these nine negotiations (i.e. those
where BITs-type provisions are on the agenda) opted to replace their
respective BITs with an investment chapter in the regional agreement, this
would reduce today's global BIT network by more than 270 BITs.
* * *
Analysis of overall investment policy developments, both at the national
and international levels, will be available in UNCTAD's 2013 World
Investment Report (WIR), to be launched globally on 26th June. The report
will also present recent global and regional investment trends. The theme
of the report is "global value chains: investment and trade for
development".
With kind regards,
James Zhan
Director
Investment & Enterprise Division
United Nations Conference on Trade & Development
Palais des Nations, Geneva
Tel: +41 22 9175797
www.unctad.org/diae
www.unctad.org/wir (World Investment Reports)
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