The role of preferential trade agreements in international investment policy

Preferential trade agreements have played an important role in the evolution of international investment policy. Indeed the emergence of international investment policies over the last half century or more can be best described as a multilevel process. Policies and rules have been shaped by initiatives at all levels starting from top-down multilateral efforts and ranging through, plurilateral, regional and bilateral initiatives to unilateral actions. Bilateral investment treaties and more recently bilateral comprehensive trade and investment agreements have had a major impact, but these must still be seen in the context of broader plurilateral and regional initiatives. The current debate is shaped by a renewed belief that preferential initiatives will further international, meaning global, investment rules. There are regional (such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership), plurilateral (such as the International Services Agreement) and bilateral initiatives (such as the shape of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). But such recent policy developments really confirm the multilevel nature of investment policy and the fact that the choice of level is largely shaped by the strategic interests of key agents