General Agreement on Trade in Services
The number of bilateral investment agreements increased rapidly during the 1990s as countries and investors sought more regulation for security, certainty and mobility for their investments after it became clear that the Uruguay Round's Agreement on Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS), Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) addressed only part of investment-related concerns and did not provide enough security for investors nor strong controls on host governments to regulate multinational corporations. In addition to these instruments, in 1992 the World Bank adopted Guidelines on the Treatment of Foreign Direct Investment. In 1994 the Energy Charter Treaty provided an example of a multilateral investment agreement, though limited to the energy sector.