The United States is currently engaged in a multilateral agreement – one of the largest in the world – with Canada and Mexico. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) increased trade by 300% between its inception in 1994 and 2009. Multilateral agreements have many advantages, including tariff reductions and the facilitation of the import and export of goods for businesses. In September 1986, the Uruguay Round began in Punta del Este (Uruguay) and focused on extending trade agreements to several new territories. This included services and ip. It has also improved trade in agriculture and textiles. The Uruguay Round led to the creation of the World Trade Organization. On 15 April 1994, the 123 participating governments signed the WTO Agreement in Marrakesh, Morocco. The WTO has taken the lead in future global multilateral negotiations. Attempts to create a regulatory framework for foreign direct investment at the global level have been less successful, as evidenced by the problems facing the WTO in its quest for a new TRIM agreement. So far, the MIC negotiations have not resulted in more than one weak compromise.
The most important result of the TRIPS Agreement within the WTO was that it confirmed that existing GATT/WTO rules now also apply to foreign direct investment. The most pressing problem in creating a global regulatory framework for foreign direct investment remained the extent to which the regulation of foreign direct investment had to reconcile the aspirations of the “open economy” for the free movement of goods and capital with the desire to protect the special interests of States, labour and the environment. In fact, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported that “U.S. exports of goods to current free trade agreement partners supported more than 3 million jobs in 2015, an increase of more than 22 percent since 2009.” The Trans-Pacific Partnership would have been more important than NAFTA. Negotiations were concluded on 4 October 2015. After becoming president, Donald Trump withdrew from the deal. He promised to replace them with bilateral agreements. The TPP was located between the United States and 11 other countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. It would have eliminated tariffs and standardized trade practices. See the explanatory letter in English Agreement in English, in French Letter and agreement in English (republished), point of view in Spanish Despite the perceived need, a regulatory framework for government policy and foreign direct investment at the global level is still lacking.
What exists today is a complex network of bilateral, regional and multilateral agreements that operate rather in an unregulated and limited manner. .
