Agricultural Foreign Investment Governance in Venezuela

This chapter examines the governance of foreign investment in Venezuela’s agricultural sector. It analyzes the constitutional, legislative, and treaty-based framework, with particular focus on the Constitutional Law on Productive Foreign Investment, the Seed Law, and agrarian regulations governing land tenure. Furthermore, it assesses the implications of Venezuela’s 2012 withdrawal from the ICSID Convention, which curtailed access to investor-state arbitration. The analysis concludes that the investment climate is characterized by high expropriation risks, discretionary state intervention, and sovereignty-centric policies that often supersede international commitments. While survival clauses in bilateral investment treaties (BITs) offer residual protections, persistent disputes over land, inputs, and expropriated assets reveal a structurally adverse environment for long-term agricultural investment.