State, USTR Conclude Review of Model Bilateral Investment Treaty
The Office of U.S. Trade Representative and the U.S. Department of State said they concluded the Administration's review of the U.S.'s model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) and released the revised 2012 model BIT. They said the 2012 U.S. model BIT text will ensure that U.S. companies benefit from a level playing field in foreign markets, provide effective enforcement mechanisms, and create stronger labor and environmental protections.
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Compared to the predecessor 2004 model BIT, the 2012 version includes "several important changes" to enhance transparency and public participation; sharpen the disciplines that address preferential treatment to state-owned enterprises, including the distortions created by certain indigenous innovation policies; and strengthen protections relating to labor and the environment, the departments said.
The BIT text says the U.S. and its BIT partners will give each others' investors national treatment and "most favored nation" status on such things as the "establishment, acquisition, expansion, management, conduct, operation, and sale or other disposition of investments in its territory," disposition of assets, "fair and equitable treatment" and "full protection and security," protection from expropriation, and ease of transfers.