Brussels, 16/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - EU and Chinese negotiators will meet in Beijing on 17-19 June for the third round of negotiations for a bilateral EU-China agreement on investment. The negotiations were started in January, and this week the Commission expects progress on the key sections of the agreement.
This future agreement, which is to replace the 27 already-existing bilateral agreements on investment between the EU member states and China (only Ireland has not thus far had one), will cover both the legal protection of investments (fair treatment and non-discrimination, compensation in the event of expropriation, and legal security) and reciprocal market access for EU and Chinese investors, fully respecting sustainable development objectives. The parties hope to seal an agreement within 30 months.
The EU and China want to reinvigorate investment flows which are still below their potential, given the level of integration of their economies. While their trade in goods is enormous (€428.1 billion in 2013), their flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) only reached just over €23 billion in 2012 (€15.5 billion in EU FDI in China - in other words 20% of the total foreign investment in the country - and €7.6 billion in Chinese FDI in the EU - in other words only 2.6% of the foreign investment in Europe). Trade in services, which stood at €49.9 billion in 2013, also has strong potential for growth. Lastly, the EU wants access to sectors that are totally closed in China - such as the banking sector, where the market share of foreign banks is only 1.82%. (EH)