A Comparative Analysis on the Evolution of EU and US's International Rules of Investment and its Defining Characteristics

Abstract

The past decade saw an increased global proliferation of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs), Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Mega Free Trade Agreements by countries seeking trade opportunities. Powerful institutions and countries such as the European Union (EU) and United States (US) have been diligently pursuing their interests and promoting their standards and rules of trade as a means to pave the way. This paper examines the unique characteristics of International Investment Agreements (IIAs) by the EU and the US through a comparative analysis on the historical evolution of investment agreements from the 1980s to 2016. Frameworks by Lesher and Miroudot (2005), from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OCED) and Chornyi et al. (2016) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) were synthesized for the analysis of IIAs, using a coded matrix assessment to study the extent and the depth of the investment provisions. Results reveal that both EU and US IIAs have progressively changed over time in their attempts to achieve an overall investment-friendly environment. The EU and US have distinctive differences in their historical development of IIAs, influenced by political and economic factors as well as trade arrangements. In more recent years, there has been a trend of regulatory convergence in investment provisions of IIAs by the EU and US, especially in the latest agreements signed 2016, which indicates future normalization towards investment liberalization.