42 research outputs found
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How to enhance labor provisions in IIAs
Labor provisions in IIAs should focus on corporate activity rather than governmental action. In order to encourage corporations to embrace the highest available international standards, labor provisions in IIAs should make reference to multilateral instruments that entail market-based incentives to promote labor rights on a CSR basis
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Cost Allocation in Investment Arbitration: Back Toward Diversification
In 2006, the Thunderbird tribunal, operating under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, called for the harmonization of cost-allocation approaches in commercial and investment arbitration. Subsequent tribunals appear to be heeding Thunderbird's call paving a trend in favor of the so-called "costs follow the event" (CFtE) approach and its variations. Generally, this approach prescribes the shifting of arbitral costs and reasonable legal fees to the unsuccessful party (or based on parties' relative success) and has historically been prevalent in commercial arbitration. By contrast, the more traditional approach in investment arbitration has been to share the costs of arbitration equally, save for special circumstances, with each party covering its own legal fees (traditional approach). In the wake of what appears to be an emerging trend in favor of a default CFtE custom, it is time to revisit the idea of whether a single harmonized approach to cost allocation is really appropriate. We suggest that it most likely is not
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Infrastructure for ore: Benefits and costs of a not-so-original idea
Arrangements whereby host countries receive infrastructure “now” in exchange for access to natural resources in the future have received a great deal of criticism, generally based on few data.[1] Although Chinese investments in Africa have dominated discussions, some Korean and Western firms are considering similar deals to remain competitive. Because most contracts are secret, many commentators are inevitably skeptical of the benefits to the host country -- maybe wrongly
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The global significance of transatlantic investment rules
Investment is the bedrock of the economic relationship between the European Union and the United States. Together, EU and US firms have invested more than US$ 4 trillion in each others’ markets, and bilateral investment dwarfs transatlantic trade in goods and services. As the EU and US begin negotiating a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) -- an agreement that could be unprecedented in both its scale and scope -- investment is shaping up to be one of the more difficult areas of discussion, both substantively and politically. The EU’s process for developing an overall TTIP negotiating mandate revealed deep fissures among EU institutions and stakeholders on investment, with Germany and other member states, certain non-governmental and public interest organizations and the European Parliament concerned about the commercial and legal implications of investment agreements with large economies
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Downstream Processing in Developing Countries: Opportunity or Mirage?
Oil, gas and mineral production are capital-intensive activities that attract foreign direct investment (FDI) and generate taxes and royalties for host governments. But they do not create as much employment or skills enhancement as manufacturing or service industries. In many lower income countries, raw or intermediate materials are often exported for processing in other parts of the globe. For example, although Africa possesses 26% of world bauxite reserves and produces 9% of world bauxite, it only produces 4% of primary aluminum.
Leaders of resource-rich developing countries see lack of local processing as foregone opportunities for job creation, skills development and linkages to the rest of the economy. For decades they have tried to encourage reluctant foreign investors to invest in local processing capacity. But from an economic point of view, this may be a misguided strategy because processing of crude or ore into finished products does not directly add much value
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The Futile Debate over a Multilateral Framework for Investment
One of the recurrent debates on international investment rule-making relates to the question whether it is possible to establish a multilateral framework for investment (MFI). Proponents argue that growing foreign direct investment (FDI) from emerging countries, especially China, contributes to a new consensus on global investment rules.
The crucial question however, should not be whether it is possible to negotiate an MFI (function follows form) but whether an MFI would be the right institutional form to align investment rule-making with sustainable development (form follows function)
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The Need for an International Investment Consensus-Building Process
Discussions on a multilateral investment framework have recently seen a revival, as the International Chamber of Commerce, the World Economic Forum and various authors have called for negotiations on this subject. A growing number of countries have been reviewing and adapting their international investment policies. This reflects dissatisfaction with the current international investment law regime, and a desire to improve it.
Critical issues affecting the regime (consisting of over 3,000 international investment agreements) revolve around, for example, identifying the overall purpose of the regime, defining the notion of foreign "investment" and "investor," giving content to open-ended investment protection standards, strengthening the legitimacy of the investor-State dispute-settlement system, and addressing the lack of a strong and coordinated institutional structure. Developments in treaty and arbitral practice may well address some of these issues and lead to the improvement of the regime.
It is not clear, however, how rapidly and to what extent these challenges will be addressed in the normal course of events. Allowing the regime to mature is time consuming. Moreover, there are widely diverging views among stakeholders about the extent to which changes are needed, what they should be and how they should be brought about. This is a complex situation that calls for a better understanding of the issues and bridge-building between various interested parties
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Myopic reliance on natural resources: How African countries can diversify inward FDI
Recent inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) trends across African countries are encouraging: IFDI into Africa registered almost US 43 billion in 2011.But, African countries need to do more
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对多边投资框架的无谓争论
国际投资规则制定上的一个经常性辩论涉及的问题是否有可能建立一个多边投资框架(MFI)。支持者认为,外国直接投资(FDI)增长来自新兴国家,特别是中国,一个新的共识,促进全球投资规则。
然而,关键的问题,不应该是是否有可能进行谈判的MFI(功能如下表),但小额信贷机构是否将是正确的制度形式,调整投资规则与可持续发展(形式追随功能)
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How the private sector is changing Chinese investment in Africa?
In August 2012, US Secretary of the State Hilary Clinton offered a thinly veiled criticism of China’s role in Africa, calling upon African countries to guard against those that “come in, take out natural resources, pay off leaders and leave.”The Chinese official news agency, Xinhua, retorted immediately that “Clinton’s implication that China has been extracting Africa’s wealth for itself is utterly wide of the truth.