RECENT TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS: NEW UNCTAD RESEARCH NOTE

RECENT TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS:  NEW UNCTAD RESEARCH NOTE

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 31 August (UNCTAD) -- The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has just published its latest research and analysis on recent developments in international investment agreements (IIAs).  Today’s comprehensive research note provides an up-to-date review of the expanding universe of IIAs.

The note highlights several major developments at the international level:

-- The continued expansion of the universe of bilateral investment treaties (BITs), bilateral double taxation treaties and preferential trade and investment agreements;

-- The increasingly sophisticated and complex content of the investment provisions in new agreements;

-- A wave of renegotiations of BITs, either because the original treaties have reached their expiry date, or because of changed circumstances;

-- Intensified South-South cooperation on international investment policy; and

-- The rise in investor-state disputes.

These new trends require constant monitoring, as countries and firms alike have to operate within an increasingly complicated and expanding framework of multilayered and multifaceted international investment rules with overlapping obligations and commitments.

For more information, please contact:  J. Zhan, tel.:  +41 22 917 5797; J. Weber, tel.:  +41 22 917 1124; e-mail:  iia@unctad.org; or UNCTAD Press Office, tel.:  +41 22 917 5828, e-mail:  unctadpress@unctad.org.

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For information media • not an official record