THE World Trade Organization (WTO) members reiterated their commitment to finalize the text negotiations this year for agreement on investment facilitation for development (IFD), which is seen to help boost sustainable economic growth in over 100 countries, including the Philippines.
The intergovernmental group met last month to resume the talks, discussing the priority issues that need to be ironed out in the coming months.
Among them are the scope of the agreement, most-favored nation/non-discrimination, special and differential treatment and preparatory work on investment facilitation “needs assessment,” Ambassador Mathias Francke said during the meeting.
“We need to work on these issues—both with a sense of urgency and aiming at finding compromise solutions—to allow us to meet the target date that we, ourselves, have set for the conclusion of the text negotiations,” Francke said.
“Some of these issues will likely require some participants to sit down together to find a possible way forward. If needed, I will be available to facilitate those conversations—whereby any such possible way forward will be brought back to the plenary for discussion,” he added.
The next IFD meeting is slated this month. It intends to cover the investment facilitation needs assessments and future work program.
The recent meeting came after the issuance of a joint statement on IFD by 112 WTO members in December 2021.
“This year, I encourage you to keep up the positive momentum—as well as the results-oriented and eminently cooperative spirit in which these negotiations have been conducted so far, aiming to concluding the text negotiations by the end of this year,” Francke said.
In the joint statement, signatories acknowledged that international investment and trade are crucial in driving the economy forward, stressing that IFD seeks to extend aid to developing and least-developed members in said aspects. Among these are technical assistance and capacity building.
The IFD agreement also intends to improve transparency and predictability of investment measures; simplify investmentrelated administrative procedures; and enhance the communication between governments and investors.
“Investment facilitation for development discussions at the WTO are taking place against the backdrop of an increasing and reinforcing relationship between trade and investment, which has the potential to foster economic growth and diversification, job creation and sustainable development,” WTO said.
Last month, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) set the investment approval target this year at P1 trillion. This, as several projects are currently in the pipeline and awaiting approval for incentives.
The DTI approved 235 projects amounting to P655.4 billion last year, which is below its P905-billion target in 2021 and P1.02 trillion worth of investments greenlighted in 2020.
The agency attributed the lower investment approvals to “the rise of Delta cases and extended investors timeline for finalizing studies, decisions and registrations.”