The Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs) are rules that are applicable to the domestic regulations a country applies to foreign investors, often as part of an industrial policy.
Trade-Related Investment Measures is one of the four principal legal agreements of the WTO trade treaty.
Policies such as local content requirements and trade balancing rules that have traditionally been used to both promote the interests of domestic industries and combat restrictive business practices are now banned.
Some of these investment measures distort trade in violation of GATT Articles III and XI, and are therefore prohibited.
[2] In addition, there are other international treaties, bilateral and multilateral, under which signatories extend most-favored-nation treatment to direct investment.