In the article the author tries to define on the comparative basis legal character of thenorms of international trade treaties, such as Washington Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods, and that of Bilateral Investment Treaties. The author comes to the conclusion that subject-matter of trade treaties is regulation of trade relations of in­dividuals of different states, and such rules refer to private international law. Internationalinvestment treaties regulate relations between independent states, this is the field of publicinternational law.