China pushing US for early conclusion to talks on investment treaty

BEIJING – China’s Premier, Li Keqiang, has called for China and the United States to make efforts to reach an early conclusion of their bilateral investment treaty (BIT) negotiations. The two countries have agreed to BIT talks on the basis of pre-establishment national treatment (PENT) plus a “negative list” approach.

The State newsagency Xinhua reports Li as saying that this is the first time that China has adopted such a model in BIT talks with a foreign country, noting that this shows the importance China attaches to the talks. PENT means that foreign investors and their investments will be accorded national treatment in the pre-establishment phase of their businesses, Xinhua said.

Li told visiting former US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in Beijing that, through the BIT talks, both sides sent a positive signal to the world that China and the US support trade and investment facilitation and liberalisation.

China hoped that two sides would work flexibly and pragmatically in the talks to produce positive results and reach a high-level investment treaty to realise mutual benefits, Li said. China and the US started BIT negotiations in 2008. www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).