Moving the G20’s Investment Agenda Forward

This policy brief argues that investment policies should be a core item on the agenda of the G20 and its Trade and Investment Working Group in particular. Specifically:

• The G20 should continue its important work on international investment policy reform and initiate steps to operationalize the Guiding Principles for Global Investment Policymaking. More specifically, the G20 should initiate a gap and trend analysis of the contents of international investment agreements in light of the Guiding Principles; operationalize the Guiding Principles by drafting annotations; initiate a voluntary peer learning mechanism among G20 countries regarding the use of the Guiding Principles; and invite UNCITRAL and ICSID to report on progress with regard to reforms of procedural rules.
• The G20 should support ongoing WTO discussions on investment facilitation. More specifically, the G20 should stress that a future plurilateral investment facilitation agreement needs to be compatible with the most-favored-nation principle; suggest that investment facilitation discussions aim not only at facilitating more FDI, but sustainable FDI; adopt Guiding Principles for Global Investment Facilitation to provide overall guidance; and encourage the extension of existing aid-for-trade initiatives to investment.

The Think20 (T20) is a network of research institutes and think tanks from the G20 countries. The T20 provides research-based policy advice to the G20, facilitates interaction among its members and the policy community, and communicates with the broader public about issues of global importance.

Authors

AB

Axel Berger

Karl P. Sauvant

Senior Fellow

SF

Silvia Karina Fiezzoni

RL

Rodrigo Polanco Lazo

MS

Matthew Stephenson

AT

Akihiko Tamura

PT

Pavel Trunin