WTO Members Agree to Speed Up Negotiating Schedule for Investment Facilitation Deal
World Trade Organization members agreed at a Feb. 1 meeting to a ramped up negotiating schedule for talks on investment facilitation for development, with the goal of finalizing the negotiating text by mid-year, the WTO announced. The negotiations are based on a December draft IFD agreement, in which participating members agreed to hold six negotiating rounds from January to July with the goal to "maintain momentum" after the progress made during talks in 2022.
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Ambassadors Sofia Boza of Chile and Jung Sung Park of South Korea stressed the desire to make further progress on three parallel tracks: "resolving the remaining issues in the Annex to the Draft Agreement and completing the review of the text; advancing work on investment facilitation needs assessment for developing and least-developed (LDC) country members; and intensifying outreach efforts towards other WTO members, explaining the Agreement's pro-development benefits." Members should hold off on making new text proposals and focus on resolving the remaining issues, the ambassadors said.