RECENT TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS: NEW UNCTAD RESEARCH NOTE

UNCTAD has just published its latest research and analysis on recent developments in international investment agreements. 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, 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 multi-layered and multi-faceted international investment rules with overlapping obligations and commitments.