Originally from:
Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law - Volume 4 - Hardcover
Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law - Volume 4 - Electronic
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Chapter 3
International Investment Agreements in the
Asia-Pacific Region and the Promotion Objective
Patrick W. Pearsall∗
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the past twenty years, FDI inflows have expanded substantially,
from approximately $40 billion at the beginning of the 1980s, to $200
billion in the 1990s, to over $1.5 trillion today.1 Throughout the last several
years of growth, Asia has been the most attractive region for FDI among
emerging markets.2 The FDI surge during the past few decades in the
Asia-Pacific region was accompanied by similar growth in the region’s
international investment agreement (IIA) network.3 Competition among
States in the Asia-Pacific region for limited foreign investment put
pressure on hopeful capital-importing governments to include robust
investor protection in their IIAs to demonstrate their commitment to a
positive investment climate. Asia-Pacific States now routinely draft their
IIAs in the ever-growing shadow of one another and provide investors
with protections comparable with agreements already in place within the
region.4 Toward this end, States in the Asia-Pacific over the past several
years have provided more detailed treaty language on a range of
substantive and procedural obligations and have revised their negotiating
models to reflect a growing consensus of common elements.5 In short,
states in the Asia-Pacific are increasingly looking to robust substantive
obligations and the availability of investor-state arbitration as a method of
investment protection.6
Patrick W. Pearsall, Attorney-Adviser, U.S. Department of State, Office of International Claims and Investment Disputes, Washington D.C.; Adjunct Professor, George Washington University Law School.
