Columbia University’s Vale Center has published a short essay by Shaun Donnelly, USCIB’s vice president for investment and financial services, presenting the business case for a high-standards U.S.-China bilateral investment treaty (BIT). The essay appears in the center’s journal Columbia FDI Perspectives and is available by clicking here.
Donnelly’s piece responds to an earlier essay in the journal by Karl Sauvant and Huipeng Chen advocating a different approach toward the China BIT negotiations. He argues that it is essential to get a comprehensive, high-standard BIT with China, with meaningful market-opening liberalization as well as strong investor-state dispute resolution provisions, and not to settle for a quick compromise with lower protections just for the sake of getting a deal. Donnelly argues that both the U.S. and Chinese governments – as well as their respective business communities – need the strong protections and dispute-settlement provisions one can only get in a high-standard, 21st-century BIT.
USCIB is actively working to promote member views in the context of the U.S.-China BIT negotiations, and views a high-standards BIT as a key element in USCIB’s 2013 trade and investment agenda.
Staff contact: Shaun Donnelly
