{"id":33302,"date":"2018-10-30T11:44:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T06:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=33302"},"modified":"2018-10-30T11:44:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T06:14:52","slug":"investment-facilitation-norms-for-small-firms-gain-push-at-wto-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/investment-facilitation-norms-for-small-firms-gain-push-at-wto-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Investment\u00a0facilitation,\u00a0norms\u00a0for small firms\u00a0gain\u00a0push\u00a0at\u00a0WTO\u00a0talks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/business\/investment-facilitation-norms-for-small-firms-gain-push-at-wto-talks\/article21535530.ece\"><strong>Investment\u00a0facilitation,\u00a0norms\u00a0for small<\/strong> <strong>firms<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>gain<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>push<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>at<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>WTO<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>talks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ongoing WTO\u2019s Nairobi ministerial<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Midway through the negotiations involving 164 World Trade Organisation (WTO) member nations being held here, India is holding its ground on issues such as food security as well as the centrality of development in the talks<\/li>\n<li>However, a notable group of countries, including Pakistan and China, have demanded taking forward discussions on investment facilitation and proposed norms relating to small firm<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>India\u2019s views<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>According to India, these are \u201cnew issues\u201d and, therefore, should be considered only after resolving outstanding issues relating to food security that are part of the ongoing round of negotiations which began in Doha in 2001<\/p>\n<p><strong>China\u2019s communication<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a communication to the WTO mainly at the request of China, 66 countries (including European Union members), both from the developing and the developed world, said: \u201cWe call for a dedicated minister-level meeting on investment facilitation at the (Buenos Aires) Ministerial Conference, led by a facilitator, for members to discuss this important topic. We also encourage all WTO members to actively participate in this dedicated session and to endorse the Draft Ministerial Decision on Investment Facilitation for Development.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>MSME<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>82 nations (including the EU members) called for a dedicated Minister-level meeting on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) at the Buenos Aires meeting for all members to discuss the \u201cimportant\u201d topic<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Establishment of a work program<\/strong>: Meanwhile, in the other communication relating to MSMEs, the countries supporting the cause said they reaffirm their commitment to begin a multilateral discussion on the issue through the establishment of a Work Program in the WTO to address the obstacles faced by MSMEs in international trade<\/li>\n<li><strong>Recognition of burden faced by MSMEs while participating in international trade<\/strong>: They noted that costs related to foreign trade operations represent a significant burden for the participation of MSMEs in international trade, and acknowledged that MSMEs from developing countries and especially the least developed countries among them face additional obstacles when participating in international trade<\/li>\n<li>These WTO member nations said they acknowledged that the participation of MSMEs in international trade has emerged as an important issue in the multilateral trading system and in the WTO agenda<\/li>\n<li>They also recognised that MSMEs perform a significant role in the national economies of WTO members, as sources of job creation, innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Rationale of the countries supporting investment facilitation<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The countries supporting the issue of investment facilitation said<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There were dynamic links between investment, trade and development in today\u2019s global economy<\/li>\n<li>There was a need for closer international cooperation at the global level to create a more transparent, efficient, and predictable environment for facilitating cross-border investment<\/li>\n<li>They agreed that the right of members to regulate, in order to meet their policy objectives, shall be an integral part of the proposed multilateral framework on investment facilitation<\/li>\n<li>They welcomed what they called a \u2018Draft Ministerial Decision\u2019 on Investment Facilitation for Development which wanted <strong><u>structured discussions<\/u><\/strong> with the aim of developing the proposed framework<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Discussions shall address<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These discussions shall seek to identify and develop the elements of a framework for facilitating foreign direct investments that would:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>improve the transparency and predictability of investment measures<\/li>\n<li>streamline and speed up administrative procedures and requirements<\/li>\n<li>enhance international cooperation, information sharing, the exchange of best practices, and relations with relevant stakeholders, including dispute prevention<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Facilitating greater developing and least-developed members\u2019 participation in global investment flows will constitute a core objective of the framework<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discussions shall not address<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These discussions shall not address<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Market access<\/li>\n<li>Investment protection, and<\/li>\n<li>Investor-State Dispute Settlement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Investment\u00a0facilitation,\u00a0norms\u00a0for small firms\u00a0gain\u00a0push\u00a0at\u00a0WTO\u00a0talks Context Ongoing WTO\u2019s Nairobi ministerial News Midway through the negotiations involving 164 World Trade Organisation (WTO) member nations being held here, India is holding its ground on issues such as food security as well as the centrality of development in the talks However, a notable group of countries, including Pakistan and China,&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/investment-facilitation-norms-for-small-firms-gain-push-at-wto-talks\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Investment\u00a0facilitation,\u00a0norms\u00a0for small firms\u00a0gain\u00a0push\u00a0at\u00a0WTO\u00a0talks<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704579863},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}