International Trade Law Commons^™

Corporate Restrictions In Mexico And The United States, Dennis Rios

LLM Theses and Essays

Mexico and the United States have had throughout their history very different experiences in their international relations and thus different approaches towards foreign investment. Both Mexican and American corporations looking to invest in each others countries have to face several restrictions in their attempt to conduct business. These restrictions are constantly changing as the needs and circumstances in each country change. The United States throughout most of its history has had for the most part, a very open policy towards foreign investment. Mexico has been throughout most of its history, on the other side, adopting very restrictive measures towards foreign …

An Evaluation Of Current Legitimacy-Based Objections To Nafta's Chapter 11 Investment Dispute Resolution Process, Naveen Gurudevan

San Diego International Law Journal

The year 1994 saw the conclusion of a very important trilateral trade and investment treaty in North America: the North American Free Trade Agreement. Since then, this agreement has had a tremendous impact on the trading relations among the three signatory states-the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Of particular significance is Chapter 11, the Investment Chapter. One of the main objectives of Chapter 11 is to provide an effective means for the resolution of disputes between a foreign investor and the host government. To this end, it provides a mechanism whereby private parties can initiate arbitration proceedings against the host …

U.S. Foreign Direct Investment In Developing Countries: A Case Study Of Malaysia, Mexico And South Africa, Abenaa A. Oti-Prempeh

LLM Theses and Essays

There is an upsurge for foreign investment in developing countries. Developing countries that seek foreign investment actually prefer foreign direct investment. The issue of foreign direct investment has become a controversial issue among developing countries. Though this type of investment provides economic growth, employment, and infrastructure development, developing countries may also suffer legal and economic manipulation by the foreign investors at the expense of their countries’ resources. The foreign investment policies of developing countries that seek such foreign direct investment ultimately determine the actions of foreign investors. In many developing countries, foreign investment policies and other investment regulation are catalysts …

Imf Conditionality As Investment Regulation - A Theoretical Analysis, Daniel R. Kalderimis

ExpressO

This article examines the intersection between the International Monetary Fund (“IMF”) and foreign investment. Although the IMF was not originally designed to regulate foreign investment, IMF policies have famously required capital account liberalization as a condition for access to IMF credit. This article explores the implications of such conditionality and finds it problematic. Investment conditionality is outside the IMF’s mandate, difficult to reconcile with other existing investment regulation instruments, inimical to democracy and potentially destabilizing to the debtor country, and ineffective at ensuring long-term stable change. These conclusions necessitate a reappraisal of the governance and operations of the IMF.

Foreign Direct Investment In Colombia, Juliana Gomez

LLM Theses and Essays

After decisions 220/88 and 291/91 of the Andean Pact, Colombia enacted law 9 of 1991. Law 9/91 empowered the National Economic and Social Policy Council (COMPES), a private government consulting agency, to promulgate rules on foreign investment. In the same year, the COMPES promulgated resolution 51 which is the base of the foreign investment regulation in Colombia. The purpose of this study is to analyze the legal aspects of foreign investment of Colombia and compare them with the international standards in order to determine whether the Colombian regulation acts in accordance to those standards or even exceeds them. The standards …

Investments In Free Economic Zones: Analysis Of Factors And Policies Underlying Their Success, Ihor Mehedynyuk

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis will focus on the experience of those developing countries whose FEZs have been regarded as successful in attracting foreign investment and creating a suitable environment for the activity of zone-based foreign enterprises. Furthermore, it will examine the major aspects of FEZ operations and legal and economic strategies of host countries. Chapter I will concentrate on issues relating to foreign investment, types of attitudes towards foreign investment and their relationship with investment policies of host countries and the role of legal systems in attracting foreign investment. Chapter II will provide an overview of various types and characteristics of FEZs, …

Investment Disputes And Jurisdiction Of The International Center For Settlement Of Investment Disputes (Icsid), Vakhid Yakubjanovitch Saparov

LLM Theses and Essays

This thesis will analyze one of the ways in which disputes arising from developed countries' investment activities in the developing countries are decided. The issues of investment and disputes are of great importance to the developed countries as well as to developing countries. The scope of the issues gives rise to a multitude of questions of national and international law in an interdependent world economy. International investment attracts the close attention of international law because it brings the movement of people and financial resources from one country to another and such movement gives rise to a potential risk for conflict …

The Legal Aspects Of Foreign Investment In Vietnam, Tang Thi Thanh Trai Le

Journal Articles

Recent years have brought burgeoning interest in foreign investment in Vietnam. Although a few observers have sounded discordant notes about Vietnam's economic potential, they have been drowned out in the chorus of the prevailing opinion that Vietnam appears set to become the next 'tiger' of Southeast Asia. Recognising this potential, the US lifted its trade embargo of Vietnam in early 1994. By this time, foreign investors from other nations had already established a presence in Vietnam.

Foreign investors have well-founded reasons underlying their interest in Vietnam. Vietnam's plentiful natural resources, including timber, oil, agricultural resources, a long coastline, tourism, and …

The Institutional And Policy Framework For Foreign Investment In The Eastern Caribbean, Puerto Rico, And The United States Virgin Islands, T. M. Ocran

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article provides an overview, based in part on the author's field survey, of the investment laws and policies of the Eastern Caribbean subregion. The island states of the Eastern Caribbean offer foreign investors unique opportunities. Among the reasons that these states should attract investment is the close relation between the two two neighboring islands, Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, and the United States; this relation offers the Eastern Caribbean states ready access to the U.S. market. The author examines these relations and the institutional frameworks for investment employed by the various states. The Article raises questions …

Visas For Sale: A Comparison Of The U.S. Investor Provision With The Australian Business Migration Program, Catherine R. Giella

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

This paper is an attempt to evaluate the United States' new investor program based on a comparison with Australia's failed system. The thesis of this paper is that in order for an investor program to be successful, the program must strike a careful balance between meeting the needs of the immigrant investors and those of the welcoming country and its citizens. The analysis proceeds by briefly looking at the history of immigration in both countries and then focusing on what the interests of the investors and the country are in initiating and taking advantage of such a program.

Preface: Symposium On Trade And Foreign Investment In Eastern Europe And The Soviet Union, David F. Matlin, James A. Yokely

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law held a Symposium on Trade and Foreign Investment in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union on March 14 and 15, 1991. The Symposium consisted of a morning and an afternoon seminar held on March 15 at the Vanderbilt University School of Law and an inaugural dinner and address the previous evening. Our goal was to bring together and promote discussion among the leading authorities in this area from academia, private legal practice, business, "and government. The results of this Symposium have culminated in the publication of this special issue, which contains Articles, Essays, edited …

Trade And Investment In Central And Eastern Europe: A Bibliographic Survey Of Current Literature In English, Igor I. Kavass, William M. Walker

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The year 1989 will be remembered as an important year in the histories of the Central and Eastern European countries because of the demise of the Soviet-controlled regimes and the emergence of independent and largely pluralistic political movements. A major catalyst for such radical political change was the decline of the centralized command economies in the Central and Eastern European countries. These so-called "Soviet Bloc" countries modeled their economic systems after the Soviet Union and, like the Soviet model, these countries found themselves saddled with an increasingly inefficient economic system. When the political systems changed, the new governments immediately took …

Considering Business Opportunities In The Soviet Union In The 1990s, Richard N. Dean

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The purpose of this Essay has been to provide, in somewhat summary fashion, basic background and guidelines to assist Western companies that are considering commercial transactions in the Soviet Union. It was not intended to be an exhaustive analysis of all factors that may affect the negotiation, completion and implementation of commercial transactions in the Soviet Union. Rather, we have drawn from our experience in assisting our clients over the last three years in the USSR and have attempted to provide an appropriate context for the consideration of potential business opportunities.

In our experience, the most effective perspective to adopt …

Negotiating Investment In The Gatt: A Call For Functionalism, Paul Bryan Christy Iii

Michigan Journal of International Law

In part, this article is about the conflict between literalism and functionalism in the GATT. It examines an attempt in the Uruguay Round to negotiate rules on foreign direct investment - the so-called trade-related investment measures (TRIMs) negotiations. Foreign direct investment is often a stage in the internationalization of enterprises; it is helpful to the trade of goods producers and necessary to the trade of many services providers. Affected by the output-oriented history of the GATT, however, the Contracting Parties have treated investment as though it were simply one of three legs of an economic triangle: goods, services, investment. In …

Regulation Of Imports And Foregn Investment In The United States On National Security Grounds, David Scott Nance, Jessica Wasserman

Michigan Journal of International Law

Traditionally, concerns over the effects of trade and investment on national security have centered upon the transfer of products and technologies with potential military uses. However, national security concerns also arise with respect to the economic and military impact of imports and of foreign acquisition of domestic assets. The United States has a longstanding statute, section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, that allows the President to restrict imports of goods on national security grounds. More recently, another statute, popularly referred to as the Exon-Florio Act, provides the President with authority to bar the acquisition of United States …

Regulation And Liberalization Of Imports And Foreign Investment And The Role Of Trade Actions In The Republic Of Korea, David A. Laverty

Michigan Journal of International Law

The Republic of Korea is well-known for its exceptionally successful export-driven economy and for the role of the Korean government in actively pursuing policies which have fostered the growth of Korean industry and the penetration of Korean products in the international marketplace. This rapid penetration of Korean products has been a source of tension among Korea's trading partners as they have sought to respond to calls from their domestic-industry constituencies for protection from the increased importation of Korean products. However, less well-known and of increasing significance to Korea itself and to the international community is not the outflow of Korean …

The Death Of Ideology In Soviet Foreign Investment Policy, Christopher Osakwe

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article's primary thesis is that the Soviet Government's decision to permit the creation of international joint ventures in the Soviet Union is a major instrument of the policy of perestroika. As such, the stability and profitability of any international commercial joint enterprise in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked with the fate of perestroika. If perestroika succeeds, the Soviet Union will have a market-oriented socialist economy, fully integrated into the world economy. By virtue of this success, Western investors and entrepreneurs will be in a position to make deeper, more profitable, and more lasting inroads into the Soviet economy. …

The United States Policy Toward Inward Foreign Direct Investment, Harvey E. Bale, Jr.

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This paper presents the perspective of the author, a trade and investment policy official, on the most significant aspects of the United States policy toward foreign direct investment. The summary in this section is presented to give the author's policy viewpoint in order to assist the reader in evaluating the paper's arguments... United States policy, at both the federal and local levels, reflects a strong positive attitude concerning the general benefits of inward foreign direct investment. While foreign ownership of United States assets is restricted in certain sectors, the general United States approach is one of "national treatment"--i.e., foreign investors …

Determinants Of Foreign Plant Start-Ups In The United States: Lessons For Policymakers In The Southeast, Michael I. Luger, Sudhir Shetty

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This article examines the elasticity of DFI in relation to these promotional activities. It also analyzes the effect that agglomeration economies, urbanization economies, and labor market conditions have on DFI. Its specific focus is upon the effect that those four determinants had on new plant start-ups in three separate industries: drug manufacturing, industrial machinery, and motor vehicle production over the 1979-1983 period. (Those industries have been given standard industrial classification (SIC) numbers of 283, 355 + 356, and 371, respectively, by the U.S. Department of Commerce.) The industries are considered separately in order to test the hypothesis that the importance …

United States Investment In Ireland, Eugene P. Fanning

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

This Article will examine in general the structure of the Irish Government relating to foreign investment, and describe the role of the government agencies that provide incentives for foreign direct investments. The Article will focus on the negotiation process between those government agencies and foreign investors, and examine the typical investment contract entered into by United States investors. The Article will also describe some important aspects of the typical forms of direct investment in Ireland: manufacturing, service industry, and joint venture investments. This Article will examine the concept of tax-advantaged lending in Ireland, Ireland's foreign exchange control regulations, and its …

United Kingdom Regulation Of Transnational Corporate Concentration, J. Denys Gribbin

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article begins by describing the United Kingdom's policy toward outward and inward direct investment and then sets out the essentials of the competition laws that are among the major, nondiscriminatory regulatory mechanisms that affect corporate behavior and planning. The article also analyzes the development of competition policy as a microeconomic instrument along with its application to monopoly, oligopoly, and cartels involving transnational corporations. Competition policy, except for cartels, is shown to be relatively benign toward mergers until recently, and with respect to monopoly and oligopoly has sought remedies in regulation of prices and behavior rather than through structural change. …

Foreign Investment In United States Real Estate: Congress Acts To Reduce Incentives, Patricia A. Mathias

Maryland Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

Supranational Regulation Of Transnational Corporations: The Unctad And Ctc Efforts, James D. Kurek

Michigan Journal of International Law

The focus of this article is the current United Nations’ efforts designed to influence the activities of transnational corporations (TNCs) and other participants in the foreign investment arena, with special attention being given to those provisions which deal with concentration. The efforts to be discussed are primarily centered in the U. N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the U. N. Economic and Social Council's Commission on Transnational Corporations (CTC). Since the approach and methods employed by these two bodies differ in several significant respects, each will be considered separately. The concluding discussion examines a variety of views on …

Trade In Place Of Migration, Jagdish N. Bhagwati

Faculty Scholarship

This is a very useful and welcome study, sponsored by the World Employment Programme of the I.L.O., of the effects that increased trade flows could have on the level of employment in one “receiving country,” West Germany, and two sending countries, “Spain and Turkey,” and their implications for immigration policies.

Disclosure Of Foreign Direct Investment In United States Agricultural Property, Edward C. Brewer, Iii

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

On October 14, 1978, Congress passed the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act, to require reports by foreign persons of their holdings in agricultural property. The Act directs the Secretary of Agriculture to compile data from these reports, and to analyze the effect of foreign investment upon the agricultural economy. In its 1976 survey of foreign direct investment in the United States, the Department of Commerce found that, although sufficient data existed in most areas of the economy to support an assessment of the effect of foreign direct investment, data on foreign ownership of real estate was insufficient. This was attributed …

Nigeria: Still Safe For U.S. Investors?, Jerome F. Donovan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Doing business in Nigeria has never been easy. Delays and frustrations are commonplace. Coupled with recent political changes, these formidable considerations may dissuade many potential investors from entering Nigeria. Nigeria, however, has an important role in international economics, which is sure to increase in significance. Thus, American businessmen may find that they cannot afford to ignore Nigeria, despite their inclination to do so. Nigeria's government has taken positive and far-reaching steps to encourage and protect foreign investment in order to better meet the country's economic, social, and political needs. Innovative American businessmen sensitive to local needs can certainly find their …

The Foreign Investment Climate In Nigeria, Bernard Blankenheimer

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Foreign investment in Nigeria requires careful planning and attention to local requirements. For those investors willing to take the necessary time and effort the opportunities offered can be rewarding. The prospective American investor must inform himself of political, economic, and social conditions. He must adapt himself to dealing with Africans and must try to understand their social and cultural patterns and their historical evolution. In the past this was desirable, but not essential, since business contacts were predominantly European. Today it is critical.

Invitations by Nigerians for joint projects involving public participation need not be regarded as an overriding obstacle …

Books Received, Journal Staff

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A COMMENTARY ON THE FOREIGN INVESTMENT REVIEW ACT

By Graeme C. Hughes

Toronto: Carswell, Ltd., 1975. Pp. 214. $20.65.

=================

THE EXPORT TRADE: THE LAW AND PRACTICE OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE By Clive M. Schmitthoff

6th ed. London: Stevens & Sons,Ltd., 1975. Pp. 461. $28.75.

==================

FOREIGN DISINVESTMENT BY U.S. MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS: WITH EIGHT CASE STUDIES

By Roger L. Tourneden

New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. Pp. 157. $15.00.

==================

THE GATT LEGAL SYSTEM AND WORLD TRADE DIPLOMACY

By Robert E. Hudec

New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. Pp. 399, $25.00.

================

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS--GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS

By Jack N. Behrman, J.J. Boddeayn, & Ashok …

The Argentine Foreign Investment Law And Its Andean Common Market Inspiration, Robert Y. Stebbings

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Back in power after nearly twenty years of forced exile, the government of Juan Domingo Per6n fulfilled one of its most popularly acclaimed promises. Following a prolonged emotion-charged journey through the first Congress since the dissolution of that body in 1966, Argentina's new Foreign Investment Law (the "Law") became effective in December 1973. Law No. 20.577 regulates foreign direct investments, foreign credits and contracts involving payments abroad. Appearing almost simultaneously, Law No.20.575 requires registration with the government of all persons or entities who carry out any activity related to Argentina on behalf of foreign interests. The Foreign Investment Law was …

Emerging Neo-Mercantilism In Canadian Policy Toward State Enterprises And Foreign Direct Investment, Douglas F. Lamont

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Canadians have written many volumes about their relative inability to preserve their domestic economy from the deepening entanglements of American foreign investment. They cite such highly visible names as Exxon and General Motors for special notice since their Canadian subsidiaries dominate their respective local industries. Canadian nationalists fear that these firms as well as others from the United States will rejuvenate the now discredited continental thesis, which calls for the economic merger of Canada and the United States into one highly-integrated North American market. So uneasy are Canadians about potential American challenges to their sovereignty that they have resurrected mercantilistic …