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20 AOUT 2000. - An Act to approve the Agreement between the Belgian Economic Union and the Government of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire concerning the mutual promotion and protection of investments, done in Brussels on 1^er April 1999 (1) (2) (3)

ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1^er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 77 of the Constitution.
Art. 2. The Agreement between the Belgian Economic Union and the Government of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire concerning the mutual promotion and protection of investments, made in Brussels on 1^er April 1999, will release its full effect.
Promulgation of this law, let us order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Nice on 20 August 2000.
ALBERT
By the King:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
L. MICHEL
The Secretary of Etat in Foreign Trade,
P. CHEVALIER
Seen and sealed the state seal:
Minister of Justice,
Mr. VERWILGHEN
____
Notes
(1) Session 1999-2000.
Senate
Documents. - Bill tabled on 2 May 2000, No. 2-420/1. - Report made on behalf of the commission, No. 2-420/2. - Text adopted by the Commission, No. 2-420/3.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion. Session of June 21, 2000. - Vote. Session of June 22, 2000.
Room
Documents. - Project transmitted by the Senate, No. 50-743/1. - Text adopted in plenary and subject to Royal Assent, No. 50-743/2.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion and voting. Session of 6 July 2000.
(2) See Decree of the Flemish Region of 19 July 2002 (Moniteur belge du 31 août 2002), Decree of the Walloon Region of 12 July 2001 (Moniteur belge du 1^er August 2001 - Ed. 2), Order of the Brussels-Capital Region of 7 February 2002 (Belgian Monitor of 24 December 2002).
(3) The Treaty entered into force on 15 June 2013.
Agreement between the Belgian Economic Union and the Government of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire concerning the mutual promotion and protection of investments
The Government of the Kingdom of Belgium,
acting both in his name and in the name of
Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
under existing agreements,
the Walloon Government,
the Flemish Government,
and the Government of Brussels-Capital,
on the one hand
and
The Government of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire,
on the other hand,
(hereinafter referred to as the Contracting Parties)
Desirous of strengthening their economic cooperation by creating favourable conditions for the realization of investments by nationals of one of the Contracting Parties in the territory of the other Contracting Party,
The following agreed:
ARTICLE 1^er
Definitions
For the purposes of this Agreement,
1. The term "investors" means:
(a) "nationals", i.e., any natural person who, according to the law of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire is considered a citizen of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire respectively;
(b) the "societies", that is, any legal entity incorporated in accordance with the laws of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire and having its head office in the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg or the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire respectively.
2. The term "investments" means any assets or direct or indirect contributions to digital, in kind or in services, invested or reinvested in any sector of economic activity.
These include, but are not limited to, investments within the meaning of this Agreement:
(a) movable and immovable property and other real rights such as mortgages, privileges, leases, usufructs and similar rights;
(b) shares, social shares and all other forms of participation, whether minority or indirect, in companies incorporated in the territory of one of the Contracting Parties;
(c) obligations, receivables and rights to all benefits of economic value;
(d) copyright, industrial property rights, technical processes, names filed and the trade fund;
(e) concessions arising from a unilateral or synallagmatic act, public or private law, including those relating to the prospecting, extraction or exploitation of natural resources.
No change in the legal form in which assets and capital have been invested or reinvested affects their investment qualification within the meaning of this Agreement.
3. The term "income" refers to amounts generated by an investment and, in particular, not exclusively, profits, interests, capital increments, dividends, royalties or allowances.
4. The term "territory" means:
(a) in respect of the Belgian Economic Union, the territory of the Kingdom of Belgium and the territory of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the maritime areas, that is, the marine and submarine zones that extend beyond the territorial waters of the State concerned and on which it exercises, in accordance with international law, its sovereign rights and jurisdiction for exploration,
(b) in respect of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, the territory of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, including its territorial sea, as well as the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf on which Côte d'Ivoire exercises, in accordance with international law and its national legislation, sovereign rights for the exploration and exploitation of natural, biological and mineral resources in the waters of the sea, the soil and the basement of the sea.
ARTICLE 2
Investment promotion
1. Each Contracting Party shall encourage investment in its territory by investors of the other Contracting Party and admit such investments in accordance with its legislation.
2. In particular, each Contracting Party will authorize the conclusion and execution of licence contracts and trade, administrative or technical assistance agreements, provided that such activities have a relationship with investments.
ARTICLE 3
Investment protection
1. All direct or indirect investments made by investors of one of the Contracting Parties shall enjoy fair and equitable treatment in the territory of the other Contracting Party.
2. Subject to the measures necessary for the maintenance of public order, such investments shall enjoy constant security and protection, excluding any unjustified or discriminatory measures that may hinder, in law or in fact, their management, maintenance, use, enjoyment or liquidation.
3. The treatment and protection defined in paragraphs 1^er and 2 of this article are at least equal to those enjoyed by investors of a third State and are, in no case, less favourable than those recognized by international law.
4. However, this treatment and protection do not extend to the privileges granted by a Contracting Party to investors of a third State, by virtue of its participation or association in a free trade zone, customs union, common market or other forms of regional economic organizations.
ARTICLE 4
Private and restrictive measures of ownership
1. Each Contracting Party undertakes not to take any measures of expropriation or nationalization, nor any other measure whose effect is to dispossess, directly or indirectly, the investors of the other Contracting Party of the investments that belong to them in its territory.
2. If public utility, security or national interest requirements warrant a derogation from paragraph 1^er the following conditions shall be met:
(a) measures are taken by law, and
(b) they are not discriminatory, and
(c) they have provisions for the payment of adequate and effective compensation.
3. The amount of compensation will correspond to the real value of the investments concerned on the day before the measures were taken or made public.
Compensation shall be paid in the currency in which the investment was made or in any other convertible currency agreed between the investor and the Contracting Party.
They will be paid without delay and freely transferable. They will be of interest to the normal commercial rate from the date of their fixation to the date of their payment.
4. For substances regulated by this Article, each Contracting Party shall grant investors of the other Party, at least equal, treatment to the one it reserves in its territory to investors of the most favoured nation. Such treatment would in no way be less favourable than that recognized by international law.
ARTICLE 5
Loss due to exceptional events
Investors of one of the Contracting Parties whose investments would have suffered damage from war or other armed conflict, revolution, state of national emergency or revolt in the territory of the other Contracting Party shall, on the part of the other Contracting Party, receive at least equal treatment to that granted to investors of the most-favoured nation in respect of restitution, compensation, compensation or other compensation.
ARTICLE 6
Transfers
1. Each Contracting Party shall, in accordance with its legislation in force on the date of transfer, guarantee to investors of the other Contracting Party the free transfer, to or from its territory, of all payments relating to an investment, including:
(a) amounts intended to establish, maintain or develop investment;
(b) amounts intended for the settlement of contractual obligations, including amounts necessary for the reimbursement of borrowings, royalties and other payments arising from licences, franchises, concessions and other similar fees, as well as the remuneration of expatriated personnel;
(c) income from investment;
(d) the proceeds of the total or partial liquidation of investments, including capital gains or increases;
(e) compensation paid pursuant to section 4.
2. Nationals of each of the Contracting Parties authorized to work for an investment in the territory of the other Contracting Party are also authorized to transfer an appropriate quotity of their remuneration to their countries of origin.
3. Transfers shall be made freely in the course applicable to the date of the transfer to cash transactions in the currency used.
4. Each of the Contracting Parties shall issue the necessary authorizations to ensure, without delay, the execution of the transfers without any other charges than the usual fees and fees.
5. The guarantees provided for in this article are at least equal to those granted to investors of the most favoured nation.
ARTICLE 7
Subrogation
1. If one of the Contracting Parties or a public body of the Contracting Party pays compensation to its own investors under a particular investment guarantee, the other Contracting Party shall, subject to notification, recognize that the rights and shares of investors are transferred to the Contracting Party or the public body concerned.
2. With respect to transferred rights, the other Contracting Party may apply to the insurer, which is subrogated in the rights of compensation investors, the obligations that are legally or contractually binding on the insurers.
ARTICLE 8
Rules applicable
Where an investment issue is governed both by this Agreement and by the national legislation of one of the Contracting Parties, or by existing international conventions or by any of the Contracting Parties in the future, investors of the other Contracting Party may avail themselves of the provisions that are most favourable to them.
ARTICLE 9
Special agreements
1. Investments that have been the subject of a particular agreement between one of the Contracting Parties and the investors of the other Party shall be governed by the provisions of this Agreement, and by those of the particular agreement which may provide, where appropriate, economic and financial stipulations derogating from this Agreement.
2. Each of the Contracting Parties shall at any time ensure compliance with its commitments to investors of the other Contracting Party.
ARTICLE 10
Settlement of investment disputes
1. Any investment dispute between an investor of either Contracting Party and the other Contracting Party shall be submitted to the competent court agreed between the parties to the dispute.
In the absence of such a treaty competence, the application of paragraphs 2 to 7 of this article shall be made.
2. Any investment dispute between an investor of one of the Contracting Parties and the other Contracting Party shall be notified in writing, accompanied by a sufficiently detailed aide-memoire on the part of the most diligent party.
To the extent possible, the parties will attempt to settle the dispute amicably by negotiation, by resorting to the expertise of a third party, or by conciliation between the Contracting Parties by diplomatic means.
3. In the absence of amicable settlement by direct arrangement between the parties to the dispute or by diplomatic conciliation within six months of its notification, the dispute shall be subject to the choice of the investor, either to the competent jurisdiction of the State where the investment has been made or to international arbitration.
To this end, each Contracting Party shall give its early and irrevocable consent to any dispute being submitted to that arbitration. This consent implies that each Contracting Party waives the requirement to exhaust domestic administrative or judicial remedies.
4. In the event of recourse to international arbitration, the dispute is submitted to one of the following arbitration bodies, at the investor's choice:
an ad hoc arbitration tribunal, established in accordance with the arbitration rules of the United Nations Commission for International Commercial Law (C.N.U.D.C.I.),
the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (C.I.R.D.I.), created by "the Convention for the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States", opened for signature in Washington on 18 March 1965,
the Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris;
The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce.
If the arbitration procedure is introduced at the initiative of a Contracting Party, the Contracting Party shall, in writing, invite the investor concerned to express his or her choice with respect to the arbitration body that must be seized of the dispute.
5. None of the Contracting Parties, a party to a dispute, shall raise any objection, at any stage of the arbitration proceedings or the execution of an arbitration award, as the investor, an opposing party to the dispute, would have received compensation covering all or part of its losses in the execution of an insurance policy or the guarantee provided for in Article 7 of this Agreement.
6. The arbitral tribunal shall rule on the basis of the domestic law of the Contracting Party party to the dispute in the territory of which the investment is located, including the rules relating to conflicts of laws, the provisions of this Agreement, the terms of the particular agreement which would have been reached with respect to the investment, as well as the principles of international law.
7. Arbitration awards are final and binding for the parties to the dispute. Each Contracting Party undertakes to execute the awards in accordance with its legislation.
ARTICLE 11
Most-favoured nation
For all matters relating to the processing of investments, investors from each of the Contracting Parties shall, on the territory of the other Party, benefit from the treatment of the most favoured nation.
ARTICLE 12
Different interpretation or application between contracting parties
1. Any dispute relating to the interpretation or application of this Agreement shall be resolved, if possible, by diplomatic means.
2. If there is no diplomatic settlement, the dispute shall be submitted to an ad hoc joint commission composed of representatives of the two Parties; it meets at the request of the most diligent party.
3. If the above-mentioned joint commission cannot resolve the dispute, it shall be submitted, at the request of either of the Contracting Parties, to an arbitration procedure implemented, for each particular case, as follows:
Each Contracting Party shall designate an arbitrator within two months of the date on which one of the Contracting Parties has indicated to the other of its intention to submit the dispute to arbitration. Within two months of their designation, the two arbitrators shall jointly designate a third State national who shall be president of the College of Arbitrators.
If these deadlines have not been observed, either Contracting Party shall invite the President of the International Court of Justice to proceed with the appointment of the arbitrator or non-designated arbitrators.
If the President of the International Court of Justice is a national of either Contracting Party or of a State with which one or the other Contracting Party does not maintain diplomatic relations, or if, for another reason, the Vice-President of the International Court of Justice shall be invited to make such appointment.
If the Vice-President is also a national of one of the Contracting Parties, or of a State with which one or the other Contracting Party does not maintain diplomatic relations, or if it is prevented, it shall be the member of the Court immediately following in the hierarchy and which is not a national of one of the Contracting Parties, to make such appointment.
4. The college will set its own rules of procedure. Its decisions shall be taken by a majority vote; it will be final and binding for Contracting Parties.
5. Each Contracting Party shall bear the costs associated with the designation of its arbitrator. The costs associated with the designation of the third arbitrator and those related to the operation of the college shall be borne equally by the Contracting Parties.
ARTICLE 13
Previous investments
This Agreement also applies to investments made prior to its entry into force by investors of one of the Contracting Parties in the territory of the other Contracting Party in accordance with its legislation.
ARTICLE 14
Entry into force and duration
1. This Agreement shall enter into force one month from the date on which the Contracting Parties have exchanged the instruments of ratification. It remains in force for a period of ten years.
Unless one of the Contracting Parties denounces it at least twelve months before the expiry of its validity period, it shall be automatically renewed for a further period of ten years, each Contracting Party reserves the right to denounce it by a notification introduced at least twelve months before the expiration date of the current validity period.
2. The investments made prior to the expiry date of this Agreement shall remain subject to it for a period of ten years from that date.
In faith, the undersigned representatives, duly authorized by their respective Governments, signed the present Agreement.
Done in Brussels, 1^er April 1999, in two original copies, each in French and Dutch, all texts being equally authentic. The French language text will be authentic in the event of a discrepancy of interpretation.