The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reported that there were five new international investment agreements by members of the Group of 20 (G-20) between October 1, 2021 and May 15, 2022.
During this period, G20 members concluded one bilateral investment treaty (BIT) and four other international investment agreements (IIAs).
These are the Turkey–Uruguay BIT, the Australia–UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the Cambodia–Republic of Korea FTA, the India–United Arab Emirates Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CETA), and the New Zealand-UK FTA.
«Other IIAs» encompass a variety of international agreements with investment protection, promotion and/or cooperation provisions, other than BITs.
They include free trade agreements (FTAs), regional trade and investment agreements (RTAs), comprehensive economic partnership agreements (CETAs), cooperation agreements, association agreements, economic complementation agreements, enhanced economic partnership agreements, agreements establishing free trade areas, and trade and investment framework agreements (TIFAs).
International investment
Unlike BITs, «other IIAs» can also encompass plurilateral agreements.
In addition, the OECD indicated that eight BITs involving G20 members were effectively terminated; 15 five of them relied on the agreement to terminate intra-EU BITs.
The Indonesia-United Arab Emirates BIT, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Cambodia-China FTA, the Brazil–Chile FTA, the Australia-Uruguay BIT, the Japan–Morocco BIT, and the India-United Arab Emirates CEPA entered into force during the reporting period.
As of May 15, 2022, the total number of IIAs worldwide was 2,860 BITs and 429 «other IIAs.»
In the reporting period, G20 members have made few adjustments to their investment policies, continuing the observation made in the previous six-month period.
This confirms that the rush to adopt pandemic-related emergency investment policy measures has abated and G20 members have returned to the less frequent adjustments to their policies that had been observed in the pre-pandemic period.
Concerns about the implications that certain investments can have for essential security interests continue
to occupy G20 members, as documented by several adjustments in this area of investment policy.
