Trade Policy Roundtable

Extending the WTO System to Investment Regulations (August 26, 2003)

Seminar at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday, August 26, 2003, at Arnold & Porter, 555 Twelfth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

THE GATT has never covered investment flows, or other factors of production, but the need for security of investment is at least as great as security of access to markets, i.e. of trade.  Before the Uruguay Round negotiations began there were U.S. proposals for extending the GATT to investment.  Then at the WTO�s first Ministerial Conference, held in Singapore in December 1996, a working group was established on investment regulations � along with working groups on competition law, transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation.  At the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference, the so-called Singapore issues were put on �track two� of the Doha Round agenda and, once modalities are settled at the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Canc�n next month, negotiations on them are expected to get under way.  Initially, the impetus for WTO rules on investment came from the European Union and Japan, but earlier this year the U.S. Administration announced its support and has become more engaged on the issue. 

After Dr Eglin has presented his paper, the discussion will be initiated by TIMOTHY DEAL (Senior Vice President, U.S. Council for International Business) and CHARLES LEVY (Partner, Wilmer Cutler & Pickering).  

RICHARD EGLIN, Director of Trade & Finance at the WTO Secretariat, was earlier the Director of the WTO�s Development Division (1997-98).  Before that he was the Director of the Trade & Environment Division (1991-96) when, under the GATT, the Committee on Trade and Environment was established. 

About the Speaker and Discussants

Richard Eglin

RICHARD EGLIN is one of the senior permanent staff at the World Trade Organization, where he is the Director of the Trade & Finance Division, having earlier headed the WTO�s Development Division (1997-98).  Earlier still he was the Director of the Trade & Environment Division (1991-96) when, under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Committee on Trade and Environment was established. 

After obtaining his PhD in economics at Cambridge University in 1977, he joined the staff of the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C., but in 1985 transferred to the Economic Research & Analysis Division at the GATT Secretariat. 

Dr Eglin has had articles published in various professional journals and has contributed to a number of volumes of essays, including Jagdish Bhagwati and Mathias Hirsch (eds), The Uruguay Round and Beyond, in honor of Arthur Dunkel (1998).  His article in the March 1987 number of The World Economy, Oxford and Boston, on �Surveillance of Balance-of-Payments Measures in the GATT� led to the little-noticed Uruguay Round understanding that saw the end of GATT Article XII being misused to maintain general import restrictions long after their balance-of-payments difficulties had been resolved.

Timothy E. Deal

TIMOTHY DEAL has been Senior Vice President, and head of the Washington office, of the U.S. Council for International Business since 1996, having been Deputy Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in London.  At the White House in 1989-92 he was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Economic Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council.  In 1985-88 he was Deputy U.S. Representative to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. 

Charles S. Levy

CHUCK LEVY is a Partner at Wilmer Cutler & Pickering, attorneys-at-law, Washington, D.C., where his practice focuses on international trade, investment and finance matters.  He is General Counsel to The Business Roundtable and advises other business organizations, including the financial services group at the Coalition of Service Industries, the Intellectual Property Committee, the Information Technology Industry Council and the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports.

The Cordell Hull Institute�s Trade Policy Roundtable is sponsored by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Arnold & Porter, Hogan & Hartson, O�Melveny & Myers, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, Steptoe & Johnson and Wilmer Cutler & Pickering