| PROTECTING
FOREIGN INVESTMENT The WTO and the New Global Investment Regime |
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| The rich industrialized countries are insisting
that the WTO not only launch a new round of world trade negotiations (formally to be
decided at Cancun in September 2003), but that rules restricted to trade issues now be
extended to protect foreign direct investment. Developing countries would henceforward be
unable to protect their own business sectors and determine their own policies towards
foreign capital. Carlos M. Correa and Nagesh Kumar explain in detail the North's relentless determination to give overseas investments by their transnational corporations privileged protection. These initiatives have included, inter alia, the OECD's failed MAI initiative and the World Bank-sponsored Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. In particular, the authors focus on the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and Agreement on Trade-related Investment Measures (TRIMS). They spell out their consequences for developing countries. They examine whether there is really a case for a new multilateral framework on investment within the WTO. And they propose various options for developing countries in resisting what amounts to a new form of Western protectionism. This book provides invaluable information and analysis for diplomats and trade negotiators, policy makers and scholars, as well as civil society activists concerned with the impact of TNC investments on development. |
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