Civil society criticises proposed investment pact, WTO DG role
Civil Society Organisations Sunday said that there is no mandate for the adoption of the proposed agreement on investment facilitation for development (IFD) which is being negotiated by a group of members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), led by China. A WTO decision of 2004 prohibits negotiations on investment facilitation and efforts are on to bring the issue in through plurilateral means.
Around 130 members support the pact. The US, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are also not part of this proposed pact.
India and South Africa have opposed it as it neither has the WTO mandate or its members’ consensus and cannot be brought to the formal process in the WTO.
Civil society also called the “attack” on India and South Africa by WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for opposing the proposed pact “appalling”.
“The Director-General has gone far beyond her legitimate role as an international public official, who is legally required to be neutral,” some civil society organisations said in a statement.
WTO members have “explicitly rejected” attempts to get an investment agreement ever since 1996.
A decision in 2004 said that there would be no discussion of investment negotiations in the WTO until the Doha round was over and the round was not over. In the 2015 Nairobi Ministerial Conference, it was decided that any such new issues would only be addressed if agreed by all members, they said.
“Not only is there no mandate for these negotiations, there is a negative mandate. Countries who are trying to push this through
