The report finds that G20 members have continued to honour their pledge not to introduce new restrictive policies for international investment. However, it cautions policymakers that foreign direct investment (FDI) may not only be limited through formal policy changes, but also through individual administrative decisions and informal public signals that are beyond the scope of the report.
The joint report, the ninth since September 2009, indicates that the great majority of investment policy measures went in the direction of eliminating restrictions and facilitating international investment, echoing the findings of earlier reports on G-20 investment measures.
The joint reports are issued periodically by UNCTAD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Trade Organization.
During the reporting period, running from October 2012 to May 2013, the following measures were adopted:
Nine countries - Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, South Africa and the United States - amended their investment-specific policies;
Six G20 members concluded four bilateral investment treaties and two other international investment agreements.
The formal policy changes captured by this report are not the only way in which governments influence - and at times discourage - FDI. Individual administrative decisions with regard to specific foreign investment projects (such as screening and monitoring procedures) and informal public signals may also have a chilling effect on specific investment projects. G20 leaders should therefore bear in mind that the rather encouraging findings in this report do not mean that the risk of investment protectionism has disappeared (see also UNCTAD's forthcoming Investment Policy Monitor, No. 10, to be released on-line on 19 June 2013).
This joint UNCTAD-OECD report has been published in preparation for the G20 Summit that is to be held in St. Petersburg in September 2013.
