INVESTMENT IN CHINA, NO RESTRICTIONS

The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, signed last December by the EU and China, is a key step on the road to normalizing relations between the contracting parties. The publication now of the Annexes to the Agreement better outlines the framework for mutual investment.

The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, whose entry into force is expected in 2022, is considered a privileged instrument (for this reason, disliked by the US administration) to rebalance trade and investment relations between the EU and China. China committed, as never before, to ensure (almost) free market access for EU investors, guaranteeing European companies those requirements of regulatory certainty, predictability of behaviour and transparency which, alone, can attract foreign capital. The publication of the Annexes to the CAI, by the European Commission’s Trade DG, shows how the absence of European barriers to Chinese capital will, in fact, have to face the obstacles that the 27 Member States present in their internal legislation. On the Chinese front, any future negative lists (which prohibit specific investments) will not apply to European companies, once the agreement is in force, while state-owned companies open to commercial activities will not be able to discriminate Union players in planning purchases and sales of goods and services.