Keeping ‘Development’ in a Multilateral Framework on Investment Facilitation for Development

In December 2019, WTO Members agreed that the Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation for Development would move into a negotiating mode, previously set to begin in March 2020. Their goal is to have a concrete outcome by the WTO’s 2021 Ministerial Conference. These negotiations are an important step towards creating a multilateral framework on a specific, technical area of foreign investment — investment facilitation. This paper seeks to do two things: (1) to provide a comprehensive analysis of a potential framework by chronicling the genesis of the idea for such a framework and the discussions, discussing competing views on an IFF and outlining the principal elements a framework; and (2) to argue that a framework should include provisions focused on facilitating sustainable investment for sustainable development. To that end, it advances suggestions for promoting sustainable investment and introduces a provision, the Recognized Sustainable Investor, that could be included in the framework to incentivize international investors to invest sustainably