Preliminary Note on Financial Crisis and Trade and Investment Treaties

North-South free trade agreements (FTAs), bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments often contain a number of provisions that can increase the likelihood of a financial crisis and make it more difficult to take the necessary measures to deal with one once it occurs. This note briefly highlights the main provisions in these agreements that can hamper the effective implementation of recommendations to deal with the current crisis. This note finds that a variety of chapters in these agreements can make it difficult to effectively carry out the measures to recover from the financial crisis. Whilst most barriers are likely to come from the services and investment chapters, the competition, goods and government procurement chapters in North-South FTAs can also have an effect.