Under these agreements, international bodies such as the World Trade Organization can rule against any public interest law that interferes with free trade. Mostly concentrated in industrialized countries, foreign investment in the newly emerging economies has increased, especially in certain South East Asian and Latin America nations. In 1995, developing countries received between 35 and 40 percent of the total amount of foreign direct investment worldwide, up from a 21 percent share in 1990. In a word, corporations.
International investment is even more concentrated than trade.
Just one hundred TNCs own one-third of the world's foreign investments. As author David Korten so aptly put it in his recent book, the global economy is allowing corporations to rule the world. Liberalizing investment rules is one more giant step in that direction. The need for an agreement liberalizing foreign investment rules seems questionable since foreign investors can largely dictate the terms of their investment. The demand for foreign investment outweighs the supply, giving foreign investors a significant advantage when negotiating with governments about conditions, tax packages and investment restrictions.