Trade by any other name: does the WTO need special rules for foreign direct investment?(World Trade Organization)(A Survey of World Trade)

Economist (US), The, October, 1998

The value of foreign direct investment (FDI) has nearly doubled between 1990 and 1997. An increasing amount of this money is going to developing countries, especially in Asia. The WTO is faced with figuring out the best way to regulate FDI, and if it should be treated differently than trade.

THE growth of international trade is not the only, or even the most impressive, measure of recent global economic integration. Between 1990 and 1997 the value of goods crossing international borders grew by just under 60% in dollar terms, whereas foreign direct investment (FDI) over the same period nearly doubled. Most of this investment went from one OECD country to another, but a growing share is now going to developing countries, mainly in Asia (see chart 6, next page). ...

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