Brazil and India initial bilateral investment treaty (BIT); text yet to be published
During the 10th Annual Forum of Developing Country Investment Negotiators, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from November 7 to 10, representatives from Brazil and India announced that they had recently initialled a bilateral investment agreement (BIT).
Since 2015, Brazil has concluded seven BITs (with Angola, Chile, Colombia, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique and Peru) based on its new model Agreement on Cooperation and Facilitation of Investments (ACFI), which focuses on investment facilitation and dispute prevention through the creation of ombudsmen in each contracting state and a joint committee. In December 2015, India approved a revised model BIT, which—while including a provision on the standard of treatment—avoids the term “fair and equitable treatment” (FET) and the most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment clause, and includes investor obligations.
It is reported that the Brazil–India BIT incorporates elements from both approaches. For example, in line with Brazil’s approach, it includes elements of investment cooperation and facilitation, and focuses on dispute prevention rather than providing for investor–state arbitration; in line with the Indian model, it does not refer to FET and does not include an MFN clause.