Caribbean Export OUTLOOK 3rd Edition

Clearing The Hurdles 106

Attendees of the Caribbean Investment Summit

have also taken into account existing or proposed investment agreements of other regional groupings, such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), the Association of South East Asian States (ASEAN) and the African Union, which create a common regime for the protection and promotion of investments of investors of member countries. The central objective of the draftCARICOMInvestment Code is to promote, facilitate and protect investments that foster the sustainable development of CARICOM countries. This is in line with the Community’s Strategic Plan (2015-2019), which identifies the attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) as one of the Community’s strategies for building economic resilience. Fundamentally, the Code is intended to provide investors in CARICOM countries with guarantees relating to the treatment that their investments should receive throughout CARICOM. In this regard, the Code will build on the existing guarantees that Community nationals enjoy, such as the right of establishment and the free movement of capital. The standards of treatment provided for in the draft Code include guarantees of non-discriminatory treatment

of investments after they have been admitted, the freedom of investors to make transfers relating to their investments, guarantees that investments will not be expropriated without compensation and guarantees that investors will be free to appoint senior management and boards of directors without regard to nationality. Importantly, recent efforts to develop the Code have been informed by the growing trend in investment policy formulation to balance protection of investors with the right of host governments to regulate in the public interest. In addition to prescribing standards for the treatment of investors, the Code is also expected to promote the corporate social responsibility of investors. Specifically, it is envisaged that CARICOM countries will be required to ensure that investors are held accountable for bribing public officials, act in accordance with core labour standards to which the host country has subscribed and operate their investments in a manner that upholds the host country’s international, environmental and labour obligations. As a companion measure, the Code is also expected to require that CARICOM countries do not encourage FDI by lowering their domestic standards, such as environmental

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