{"id":6012,"date":"2019-04-23T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T11:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/?p=6012"},"modified":"2024-08-09T18:29:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:29:37","slug":"investment-facilitation-discussions-resume-among-wto-member-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2019\/04\/23\/investment-facilitation-discussions-resume-among-wto-member-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Investment facilitation discussions resume among WTO member group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cStructured discussions\u201d on a possible multilateral facilitation framework resumed in Geneva this past month. The meeting, held in early March, marked the first session of the new year, and begins a new phase in the structured discussions process. The <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips80'>WTO<\/span> members involved previously met seven times during 2018, examining a series of overarching objectives that this framework could address.<\/p>\n<p>These objectives were listed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.wto.org\/dol2fe\/Pages\/FE_Search\/FE_S_S009-DP.aspx?language=E&amp;CatalogueIdList=240870&amp;CurrentCatalogueIdIndex=0&amp;FullTextHash=371857150&amp;HasEnglishRecord=True&amp;HasFrenchRecord=True&amp;HasSpanishRecord=True\">joint statement<\/a> from the 2017 WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which formally launched this effort. They include how to \u201cimprove the transparency and predictability of investment measures; streamline and speed up administrative procedures and requirements; and enhance international cooperation, information sharing, the exchange of best practices, and relations with relevant stakeholders, including dispute prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The March meeting was dedicated to improving the transparency and predictability of investment features. The meeting featured <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wto.org\/english\/news_e\/spra_e\/spra250_e.htm\">opening remarks<\/a> from WTO Director-General Roberto Azev\u00eado, who urged participants to be \u201ccreative and flexible\u201d as they move into \u201cpractical, example-based discussions\u201d as part of this \u201cmore outcome-oriented phase.\u201d The participants in this initiative are working off of a \u201cchecklist\u201d of issues for each objective area that emerged from the 2018 discussions.<!--more--><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips65','East African community'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips80','World Trade Organization'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cStructured discussions\u201d on a possible multilateral facilitation framework resumed in Geneva this past month. The meeting, held in early March, marked the first session of the new year, and begins a new phase in the structured discussions process. The <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips80'>WTO<\/span> members involved previously met seven times during 2018, examining a series of overarching objectives that this framework could address.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips80','World Trade Organization'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[1917,1918],"class_list":["post-6012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-investment-facilitation","tag-wto"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}