CIEL Participates in discussions on U.S. Model Bilateral Investment Treaty

October 23, 2009

CIEL participated in the work of the U.S. State Department's Sub-committee on Investment that led to a report regarding revisions to the 2004 Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). This report was presented to the U.S. State Department's Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP), which discussed it and transmitted it to the U.S. State Department.

The U.S. State Department's Subcommittee on Investment was formed by ACIEP in June 2009 at the request of the U.S. State Department and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to review the Model BIT. The Subcommittee included representatives from business, labor, environment, academic and legal organizations and institutions.

The 2004 Model BIT is the starting document that the United States uses when negotiating a new BIT.

CIEL also testified in a public meeting hosted by the Department of State and the Office of U.S. Trade Representative regarding the 2004 U.S. Model BIT.

CIEL, however, is not in agreement with all of the findings in the report, and joined environmental organizations in expressing their concerns. Those concerns have been appended to the report, which is available here.

The ACIEP report is available at: http://www.state.gov/e/eeb/adcom/aciep/index.htm

For more information:

• Letter to Secretary Clinton Regarding the Model Bilateral Investment Treaty
• Report of the Subcommittee on Investment of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy Regarding the Model Bilateral Investment Treaty
• Report of the Subcommittee on Investment of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy Regarding the Model Bilateral Investment Treaty: Annexes
  

For more information, please contact Marcos Orellana.