Plurilateral negotiations on investment facilitation for development agreement at WTO enter final sprint

Signatories of the joint statement initiative on investment facilitation for development (IFD), which is currently supported by more than 110 WTO members (two-thirds of the WTO membership), aim to conclude text-based talks by the end of this year. After the departure of coordinator Ambassador Mathias Francke of Chile, the two new co-coordinators, Ambassador Sofía Boza of Chile and Ambassador Jung Sung Park of the Republic of Korea, intend to present a revised version of the “Easter Text” —the document used as the basis for the negotiations—this September, based on the progress in the negotiations achieved since the last textual update in February of this year. The members are planning stringent work and meeting schedules for the fall 2022, comprising five IFD meeting sessions of 3 days each. The meetings will provide an opportunity to discuss the remaining outstanding issues, including those relating to MFN treatment/non-discrimination, scope/exclusions, certain definitions, as well as special and differential treatment, by the end of this year.