Investment Policy Brief 17, April 2019

Challenges of Investment Treaties on Policy Areas of Concern to Developing Countries

By Kinda Mohamadieh

Country experiences have revealed that international investment agreements (IIAs) could have an adverse policy impact on various policy areas that are generally important for developing countries in relation to the achievement of their development objectives. This policy brief gives an overview of challenges resulting from IIAs to major policy areas of concern to developing countries. These policy areas include industrial policy, tax reform, handling debt crisis, the use of capital controls, intellectual property rights, public-private partnerships, and climate change action in relation to investment in clean technologies.

This brief is part of the South Centre’s policy brief series focusing on international investment agreements and experiences of developing countries.

While the reform process of international investment protection treaties is evolving, it is still at a nascent stage. Systemic reforms that would safeguard the sovereign right to regulate and balance the rights and responsibilities of investors would require more concerted efforts on behalf of home and host states of investment in terms of reforming treaties and rethinking the system of dispute settlement.

Experiences of developing countries reveal that without such systemic reforms, developing countries’ ability to use foreign direct investment for industrialization and development will be impaired.

The policy brief series is intended as a tool to assist in further dialogue on needed reforms.

*** The views contained in this brief are attributable to the author/s and do not represent the institutional views of the South Centre or its Member States.

Download the investment policy brief below:

Challenges of Investment Treaties on Policy Areas of Concern to Developing Countries

See also:

Group of Twenty-four (G-24) Working Paper