The previous section considered how RTIAs might incorporate obligations for investors and home states. This section deals with the more traditional obligtations in IIAs: thos imposed on the host state. All IIAs, to varying degrees, impose limitations on the treatment that host governments can accord to foreign investors. They may, for example, mandate that such investors should be treated no worse than domestic investors, or that foreign investments should not be expropriated without due process and adequate compensation.

This section considers a group of key obligations often found in IIAs, asking how they might ideally be framed in light of the principles for sustainable trade agreements, enunciated above (see How to use this toolkit). It draws heavily on the work of IISD, UNCTAD and others in assessing current practice.