US, China agree to restart investment treaty talks
REUTERS: The United States and China agreed on Thursday to restart stalled negotiations on an investment treaty, with Beijing dropping previous efforts to protect certain sectors of its economy from the start.
The agreement to resume negotiations was welcomed by the US business community as a major advance during annual Strategic and Economic Dialogue talks in Washington, which have often produced few agreements of substance.
Top officials from both sides strived to project a friendly, businesslike tone as they tried to build what China calls a “new model of major country relations” between the world’s two biggest economies in the first year of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s mandate.
But talks struck a sour note over China’s handling of former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who hid out in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong last month as he revealed a secret US surveillance programme before fleeing to Russia.
Disputes over cyber security topped the agenda going into this year’s talks, which were launched in 2008 to manage a relationship that was growing more complex and tense with China’s emergence as major economic and military power.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew hailed the investment treaty commitment as a sign of positive change in Beijing as China retools its economic growth model away from heavy investment and exports toward growth driven by consumption.
“China announced its intention to negotiate a high standard bilateral investment treaty with us that will include all stages of investment and all sectors - a significant breakthrough, and the first time China has agreed to do so with another country,” he said as the talks concluded.
China and the United States began negotiations on a pact to govern bilateral investment in 2008 under then-US President George W. Bush, but discussions were put on hold after President Barack Obama took office the following year.
Previously, Beijing had agreed to talks only if certain Chinese industries, especially in its service sector, were exempt. But it agreed to drop blanket restrictions for the current talks, a US Treasury official said.
Top officials from both sides strived to project a friendly, businesslike tone as they tried to build what China calls a “new model of major country relations” between the world’s two biggest economies in the first year of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s mandate
The official, briefing reporters at the US-China economic talks, said the move was an encouraging sign the world’s second-largest economy was willing to open up more sectors to foreign competition.
Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng told reporters China and the United States shared “a common purpose, which is to try to find ways to reduce and mitigate differences and barriers that both sides place in our trade and investment relations.”
Explaining China’s motives for reopening the investment talks, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said China had about US $ 20 billion of direct investment in the United States and US $ 1.2 trillion in US Treasury bills.
“With such an extensive investment relationship, it is necessary for the two sides to have an institutional environment for the protection of these investments,” he told reporters.