EU Statement on behalf of the Co-Facilitators on "Incorporation of the Investment Facilitation for Development Agreement into Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement – Draft Decision" (agenda item 2) of the G...

Since the last General Council in February, we, the Co-Facilitators for the integration process of the IFD Agreement into the WTO legal framework: the Ambassadors of Cameroon, Cambodia and myself, have met regularly with several delegations in an outreach effort towards non-members to support the objective of integrating it into Annex 4 of the WTO Agreement. Several meetings have taken place in various configurations and formats, both here in Geneva as well as in capitals and using bilateral and regional contacts and opportunities. The Co-Facilitators debriefed of these efforts in more detail at the informal meeting of all IFD participants on 2 May. I would like to reiterate that 126 IFD member parties - including 90 developing countries – among which 27 are least-developed countries - firmly believe that their request fully observes the letter and spirit of the Marrakesh Agreement. This is an agreement of interest to the vast majority of WTO Members and has a strong potential of leading to increased FDI flows, particularly to developing and least-developed Member countries, helping them to integrate their production into international markets and global value chains, build trade-related infrastructure, and diversify their exports. In particular, we recognize that for developing and least developed Member countries, the incorporation of the IFD Agreement into the WTO framework presents a unique opportunity to secure predictable, sustained, and tailored technical assistance...