International Trade Treaties & The Fair And Equitable

International Trade Treaties and FET Name Institutional Affiliation Date International Trade Treaties and FET Introduction The process of globalization has led government to realize the importance of foreign direct investment driving economic growth. It is important to note that alone, countries are incapable of stimulating enough economic activity for sustained growth. This is particularly so developing economies, which are over dependent on capital imports. There are concerns among countries on the best way to promote flow in foreign direct investments a case that have seen many states enter into investment treaties as a way of enhancing investment from foreign investors. Investment treaties are entered into and signed by two or more states and is generally geared toward protecting foreign investors from unhealthy local regulations and any conduct that may essentially violate the terms of the treaty. For example, an investment treaty protects foreign investors from actions including but not limited to expropriation in the absence of any form of compensation and treatment that is unfair and inequitable. Investment treaties vary and exhibit diverse approaches of ensuring fair and equitable treatment when it comes to guiding foreign direct investments. They impose obligations on the part of host countries about how they should treat investors from other countries and who are members of the treaty. The obligations imposed on host states can expose them to actual as well as potential liability and can be of profound effects on economic development and formulation of other economic policies. The ensuing discussion seeks to explicate some of the approaches used in ensuring fair and equitable treatment when entering into an investment treaty.[Quick, Reinhard. "Why TTIP should have an investment chapter including ISDS." Journal of World Trade 49, no. 2 (2015): 199-209.] [Hindelang, Steffen, and Markus Krajewski, eds. Shifting paradigms in international investment law: more balanced, less isolated, increasingly diversified. (Oxford University Press, 2016).] General Overview The Fair and Equitable (FET) standard has been a subject of any works examining the formation and success of various investment treaties. Despite the fact that provisions of FET have existed in investment treaties for long, the norm started to garner attention only in the recent past largely due to the unprecedented growth in globalization. Notably, the FET standard whilst included in vast majority of investment treaties, it is expressed in varying ways. The method through which the standard is set out in investment treaties has an important role in tackling questions related to its content and scope. The most critical difference arises between the provision of the standard and which is explicitly connected to the minimum standard of treatment as set out under the customary international law. There generally lack a unified treaty formulation standard with some investment agreements including clarification language to explicitly show the meaning of the obligations contained therein. When the standard of FET and associated obligations are interpreted based on plain and ordinary meaning approach, then it can be argued that the standard is an autonomous. Equally, based on...