Investment Facilitation
IISD works to help governments shape sustainable investment through informed policy design and capacity building. We empower developing countries in the WTO negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development, providing analysis and legal expertise to ensure investments contribute to inclusive growth while safeguarding regulatory autonomy.
Crafting well-designed investment rules is pivotal in fostering sustainable investments, particularly when those rules emphasize environmental considerations, local ties, and safeguard regulatory space. Ensuring coherence between investment policies across different levels and sustainable development is paramount in this process. By embedding social and environmental factors into investment agreements and policy, IISD’s work aims to shape foreign investment policy so it fuels inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
We have engaged, over many years, to empower developing and least developed countries' negotiators, enhancing their technical knowledge and capacity so they can more effectively participate in WTO negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development. Our impartial and objective analysis helps members to articulate their needs, positions, and priorities within these negotiations. We also draw on legal expertise of our Investment Policy team to identify and address issues emerging at the convergence of the WTO agreement and international investment treaties.
Publications
The Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement: A reader's guide
A subset of World Trade Organization members has finalized the legal text of an Agreement on Investment Facilitation. This Reader's Guide provides an overview of what's in the agreement.
The Evolving Context and Dynamics of the WTO Joint Initiative on E-Commerce
This report aims to give a stocktake of the Joint Statement Initiative on e-commerce as of December 2022 while focusing on dynamics and developments throughout the year and considering recent trends in the e-commerce policy activity and governance landscape at the national, regional, and multilateral levels.
The Joint Initiative on Investment Facilitation for Development
This stocktaking brief provides an update on the joint initiative negotiations on Investment Facilitation for Development among a group of World Trade Organization (WTO) members. The brief provides updates on how the draft negotiating text has evolved since 2022, as well as an overview of how the process is likely to evolve in the run-up to MC13.
Cooperation, Capacity Building, and Implementation Considerations of Developing Countries in the E-Commerce Joint Statement Initiative
This paper highlights ways to support developing countries to participate in negotiations and implement proposed text provisions under the JSI on e-commerce.
The State of Play for Sustainable Development in the Joint Statement Initiative on Investment Facilitation for Development
This paper examines the ways in which negotiations under the JSI on Investment Facilitation for Development consider sustainable development aspects.
Negotiating Services Market Access under the E-commerce Joint Statement Initiative: A development perspective
This brief examines the negotiations on services market access within the Joint Statement Initiative on Electronic Commerce among a group of WTO Members.
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