A total of 123 World Trade Organization (WTO) members have agreed to move the plurilateral agreement on investment facilitation forward, while a few are opposing the move.
The ministers representing 123 WTO members issued a Joint Ministerial Declaration marking the finalisation of the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement a day before the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) of the WTO kicked off in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Monday.
They also issued a submission requesting the MC13 to incorporate the IFD Agreement as a plurilateral agreement into Annex-4 of the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO.
Being a plurilateral agreement, which is binding only for the members accepting it, others may also join anytime at the deal.
Developing countries like India and South Africa are against any such deal on the plea that investment facilitation is a non-trade matter, and the multilateral trade body should not be involved in it.
India also argued that the agreement may compromise the autonomy to take domestic investment-related decisions without the obligations imposed by international commitments.
Though South Korea and Chile are the formal co-ordinators of the IFD deal, it is widely backed by China.
The deal, however, requires endorsement of all the 164 member countries of the WTO to be incorporated as a formal plurilateral agreement.
Under a plurilateral agreement, participating countries may form new rules and secure mutual liberalisation of tariffs, and those sometimes go beyond the multilateral arrangement under the WTO.
Many international civil society groups also oppose the deal terming it ‘illegitimate’ and
‘anti-development.’
“Not only is there no mandate for these negotiations, there is a negative mandate. Countries which are trying to push this through at the MC13 are breaching fundamental WTO rules”, says Deborah James, facilitator of the Our World is Not for Sale network, in a press statement.
She alleged that powerful countries, mainly China, put pressure on many small and weak countries to join the plurilateral initiative.
This is to mention that the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft now has 33 signatories while Bangladesh is one of the observers of the agreement.
Tapan Kanti Ghosh, senior secretary of the commerce ministry, now visiting UAE to participate in the MC13, told Bangladesh Post that Bangladesh is not thinking of joining IFD or signing any other plurilateral deal in the near future.
“We are observing the development, but there is no plan to join any plurilateral agreement,” he said. “We are also not in a position to support the said deal. As the LDC group in WTO has a common position in this regard, we may be cornered by taking any such stance.”
Nevertheless, participants of the IFD deal represent three-quarters of the WTO membership, including close to 90 developing economies and 26 least-developed economies (LDCs) including Djibouti, the current coordinator of the LDC group in WTO.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala expressed optimism that the IFD agreement ‘will contribute to making the global economy more resilient and inclusive.’
Her supportive position to the deal also comes under criticism by many. They argued that being the head of the organisation, the DG needed to be impartial.
Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade and MC13 Chair, said that the finalisation of the IFD agreement is the result of more than six years of work, dedication and vision of more than 120 members.
