Via Politico Pro Trade
Shaun Donnelly, USCIB vice president for investment and financial services, spoke to Politico about the prospects of a U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty as President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jingping are scheduled to meet this afternoon.
Against the backdrop of President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meeting this afternoon, the window is closing on China’s pledge that it would submit an updated market access offer in its investment talks with the U.S. in March. While an offer might have come overnight, Beijing had still not put forward an updated “negative list” offer for the bilateral investment treaty by late Wednesday.
“I understand that a comprehensive, high-standard U.S.-style negative list is a new and daunting proposition for a country like China, which has a long tradition of controlling investment, both domestic and foreign, quite tightly,” said Shaun Donnelly, vice president for investment and financial services at the U.S. Council for International Business.
But it would be disappointing if the two sides missed the opportunity of Xi’s visit to make progress on the talks, he said, even though the Nuclear Security Summit is largely focused on defense and security issues.
