Conference: Treaty Shopping and Tools for Investment Treaty Reform

On March 12, 2018, the OECD will host its Fourth Annual Investment Treaty Conference. The theme is: "Treaty Shopping and Tools for Investment Treaty Reform." The program is here. Here's the idea:

The fourth annual OECD Investment Treaty Conference will address treaty shopping -- a controversial investment treaty issue of policy interest for many governments and stakeholders -- and explore tools to help interested governments improve their investment treaty policies.

Treaty shopping is widespread in the current investment treaty system. The Conference will discuss methods used, impact, policy issues raised, relevant government treaty policies and other issues.

pThe Conference will also present the innovative Multilateral Convention to Implement Tax Treaty Related Measures to Prevent Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (MLI) to the investment policy community. The MLI was developed by an ad hoc group of over 100 countries to address tax treaty shopping and additional issues. It facilitates the swift and consistent implementation of internationally agreed measures into existing bilateral treaties and provides for modification of almost half of the over 3,000 bilateral tax treaties in force today.

A concluding session will consider potential tools for reform based on the discussion and prior work by the Freedom of Investment Roundtable, and future steps.