Facilitating the flow of investment across participants by deepening linkages and assisting them to address impediments to expanding investment in response to the opportunities created by the Agreement.
To facilitate the flow of investment across the participants, by deepening and broadening linkages and assisting them to address impediments to expanding investment in response to the opportunities created by the Agreement.
The Investment Chapter of the PACER Plus Agreement is intended to encourage a stable and predictable environment to attract and promote the flow of investment between the Parties with due respect to national policy objectives and to the right of each Party to regulate.
The Agreement contains obligations that are imposed on host countries (i.e. those countries receiving investment) which are designed to further this objective in order to increase the level of sustainable investment in line with national development objectives. The Agreement contains several obligations for countries focused on Investment Protection. Many of these are usually found in international investment agreements, whether bilateral investment treaties or free trade agreements. The PACER Plus Agreement requires all countries to be accustomed to international standards, especially in respect to basic norms regarding protection of investments.
A key element of the Agreement is acknowledging that investors of a Party and their investments are subject to the laws, regulations and standards of the host state Party.
The national treatment obligation only applies in sectors listed in a country's Schedule of Commitments. A country must treat investors and covered investments from another PACER Plus country no less favourably than it treats, in like circumstances, its own investors and investments.
Each country has agreed to treat investors and covered investments from all PACER Plus countries in accordance with the most favoured nation obligation.
Each country has agreed to provide investors from PACER Plus countries with a minimum standard of treatment, in accordance with customary international law.
A government can only expropriate or nationalise a covered investment if it is for a public purpose, in a non-discriminatory manner, in accordance with due process of law, and on payment of prompt, adequate and effective compensation.
PACER Plus countries must allow transfers of monies relating to a covered investment to be made freely and without delay into and out of its territory, utilising a freely usable currency at the market exchange rate at the time of transfer.
A host country must not require members of a PACER Plus investor's senior management team to be of any particular nationality, nor require that the majority of the Board of Directors be of a particular nationality or resident in any particular country.
Performance requirements are requirements that a host country imposes on an investor either as a condition of being allowed to invest, or as a condition of being able to receive certain incentives (such as tax exemptions). WTO Members must act consistently with the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS).
Host countries owe foreign investors a certain standard of treatment in times of armed conflict, civil strife or state of emergency. If these circumstances result in losses suffered by covered investments, officials must treat foreign investors from PACER Plus countries no less favourably than domestic investors and investments, and no less favourably than investors and investments from any other country.
Transparency is about making measures known to those who want to find out about them. It is important for predictability in investment. PACER Plus Countries have committed to providing laws, regulations and other rules, names of relevant officials, and keeping information up to date.
Each PACER Plus country must identify a Contact Point who will work with other countries' Contact Points and assist with the distribution of requests and notifications about investment.
The PACER Plus Agreement does not include a conventional investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, rather encourages resolution of disputes through domestic courts. Foreign companies do not have the right to take FIC governments to binding international arbitration tribunals. Government to Government disputes can be resolved within the framework of the Dispute Settlement Chapter (Chapter 14).
PACER Plus has a number of exceptions that allow countries to justify actions that would otherwise be a breach of the obligations in the Investment Chapter. The exceptions are set out in Chapter 11 (General Provisions and Exceptions). Advice should be sought on the application of the exceptions in any given situation.
By creating a conducive investment environment, Participants will attract foreign direct investment in sectors of development priority to promote competition, expand productive capacity, boost growth, create employment, and take advantage of trade opportunities.
