Impediments arising from World Trade Organization Regarding Creation of a Comprehensive Legal Regime for Foreign Investment

Investment as a prominent component of international trade has a salient role in development of countries. Although this is a relatively classic and important issue of international law regarding economic relations between the states and private persons, it still suffers from an internationally-acknowledged comprehensive legal system. Lack of such a system can be the result of many different factors. So, investigating into this phenomenon so as to find feasibility of creating such a regime seems necessary. To this aim, the present study seeks to explore the negative impact World Trade Organization has imposed on formation of this regime and to answer the question ‘Is World Trade Organization an impediment to this or not? If yes, how?’ Considering documents related to World Trade Organization and previous claims, it became clear that this organization serves as an impediment to reaching a consensus and this is due to the diversity of its members and thus differences in political economic viewpoints. Furthermore, structures and rules in World Trade Organization are basically impediments to this.

Foreign Direct Investment; World Trade Organization; Legal Regime; WTO Deficiencies; International Trade Law