Menu Expand
Protecting Foreign Investment

Protecting Foreign Investment

Carlos M. Correa | Nagesh Kumar

(2008)

Additional Information

Book Details

Abstract

Despite the mounting criticism that globalization is encountering, the developed countries continue to lose no opportunity to change the rules of the global economy in their favour, regardless of the impact on developing countries and the poor. This book examines one of the most important instances of this: the rich countries' insistence that the WTO not only launch a new round of world trade negotiations, but that rules which were supposed to be confined to trade issues now be extended by means of new agreements protecting foreign direct investment. What is being proposed would be at the expense of the freedom of developing countries to determine their own policies towards foreign capital in tune with their development policy objectives. The two authors of this book have an intimate knowledge of WTO negotiating processes. They explain in detail the North's relentless determination to give privileged protection to the overseas investments of its transnational corporations. These initiatives have included, inter alia, the OECD's failed MAI initiative, the World Bank-sponsored Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, and the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (TRIMS). The authors spell out their consequences for developing countries. They examine whether there is any real case for a new multilateral framework on investment within the WTO. And they propose various options for developing countries to resist what amounts to a new form of Western protectionism, including how a development dimension could be incorporated in any new agreement, should the member countries of the WTO decide to proceed with negotiations. This book provides invaluable information and analysis for diplomats and trade negotiators, policy makers and scholars, as well as civil society activists concerned with the impact of TNC investments on development.
Professor Carlos M Correa is Director of the University of Buenos Aires Masters Programme on Science and Technology Policy and Management. He has also been a Visiting Professor at various universities in Latin America, Spain and Italy. He is the author of several books and articles in international journals on issues of technology and intellectual property, including Intellectual Property Rights, the WTO and Developing Countries: The TRIPS Agreement and Policy Options (Zed 2000). Professor Nagesh Kumar is Director General at the Research and Information System (RIS) for the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries, New Delhi. He has written extensively on the developmental impact of MNEs and FDI, industrial and technology development policies, WTO issues, new technologies for development and on regional economic co-operation, among other themes.

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Cover\r Cover
Contents v
Tables, figures and boxes ix
Abbreviations x
Preface xii
1: Introduction 1
The context and objectives 1
The chapter layout 3
Part one: FDI, development and national and international policy framework 5
2: Foreign direct investment, host government policy and development 7
Trends and patterns in FDI inflows and the North–South divide 7
Developmental impact of FDI on the host economies: a selective review of the literature 13
Role of government policy and performance requirements: experiences and evidence 23
Concluding remarks 27
3: Multilateral Agreements on Investments: a historical background 29
Need for international intervention 29
Types of international intervention 30
Regulatory interventions 31
Promotional interventions 36
Concluding remarks 42
Notes 43
Appendix 1: Draft United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations as of summer 1986 44
Preamble and objectives: Definitions and scope of application 44
Activities of Transnational Corporations 45
Treatment of Transnational Corporations 55
Intergovernmental Co-operation 58
Implementation of the Code of Conduct 59
Appendix: Non-collaboration by transnational corporations with racist minority regimes in southern Africa 62
Notes 62
Appendix 2: Multilaterally agreed equitable principles and rules for the control of restrictive business practices 64
Part IV – Section D: Principles and rules for enterprises, including transnational corporations 64
Part two: The Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures and developing countries 67
4: The Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures 69
Negotiating TRIMs in the Uruguay Round 69
Provisions of the TRIMs Agreement 75
Concluding remarks 79
Notes 80
5: Implications of the TRIMs Agreement for developing countries and the way forward 82
Interpretation and implementation of the TRIMs Agreement 82
An assessment of the TRIMs Agreement 91
Reviewing the TRIMs Agreement 100
Notes 104
Part three: Multilateral frameworks on investment: early attempts and relevance 107
6: Attempts to evolve a Multilateral Treaty on Investment: the OECD’s MAI 109
Main elements of the draft MAI 109
Concluding remarks 123
Notes 124
7: A multilateral framework on investment in the WTO: is there a case for it? 126
Conceptual relevance of a GATT-type framework 127
FDI policy and the level of development 129
MFI and the magnitude of FDI inflows 131
Asymmetric approach of multilateral framework 132
Existing bilateral and multilateral frameworks for investment protection and dispute settlement 135
Is there a grand bargain for developing countries? 135
Concluding remarks: is there a case for an MFI? 136
Notes 137
Part four: Options for developing countries 139
8: From Doha to Cancun and beyond: options for developing countries 141
Options for developing countries 142
Incorporating a ‘development dimension’ in a possible MFI 144
Concluding remarks 161
Notes 162
Bibliography 165
Index 172