Of the 164 WTO members, 70 formally signed “structured discussions” to identify issues and elements that could serve as the basis for a multilateral investment facilitation framework that they could present at the 12th Ministerial Conference in Kazakhstan in June 2020. The members involved in these efforts plan to complete the final phase of their work by the end of July 2019, which will be devoted to examining concrete examples of various investment facilities mentioned by members throughout the year. These structured discussions have brought investment back to the forefront, a subject that has a long and complex history, but which has only recently re-emerged in the WTO. The focus is on facilitating investment, recognizing that in today`s integrated global economy, increasing investment flows, such as trade flows, depend on simplification, acceleration and coordination of processes. Indeed, in many cases, bottlenecks, inefficiencies and uncertainties to address investment facilitation result from unnecessary bureaucracy, bureaucratic duplication, or outdated procedures that can become costly barriers to investment. [7] See Zhang, J. (2018, July). Investment facilities: a sense of concepts, discussions and processes. Geneva: IISD.

In www.iisd.org/library/investment-facilitation-making-sense-concepts-discussions-and-processes In the WTO, investment facilitation involves creating a more transparent, efficient and investment-friendly business climate by investing in foreign investors and increasing their day-to-day operations and increasing their existing investments. [12] WTO (2018, 2-4 October). WTO Public Forum: Trade 2030: Working session 29, investment facilitation for development. Session notes recorded on site and supporting the audio are available online at www.wto.org/audio/pf18session29.mp3. Caribbean countries are essentially net importers of FDI, i.e. countries where FDI flows exceed outflows. According to ecLAC`s report on foreign direct investment in Latin America and the 2019 Caribbean report, FDI flows to the Caribbean amounted to $5.623 billion in 2018.” The 11.4% decrease compared to 2017 was mainly due to the decrease in inflow to the Dominican Republic, which, despite the decline, accounted for 44% of inflows into the Caribbean region.