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After more than 7 years of negotiations, the European Union and China are close to signing an investment agreement. The agreement will improve access for Chinese investors to the Chinese market and guarantee access for Chinese companies to European markets. According to various sources, the agreement could be officially announced on Wednesday, writes Politico.
According to European diplomats, the EU and China intend to conclude the agreement this year “in principle” in a high-level videoconference between Chinese President Xi Jinping and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the Council. European, Charles Michel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who will probably take place on Wednesday.
The EU-China investment agreement would ensure that European companies present in China can compete with Chinese companies on an equal footing. The document would also ensure that Chinese companies have access to European markets.
The deal will improve European investors’ access to the Chinese market of 1.4 billion people from various economic sectors, including sectors such as electric car construction, cloud services, health and financial services, construction, manufacturing, air and sea. The agreement will also include rules against forced technology transfer.
Exports from the European Union to China last year amounted to about 199,000 million euros and imports were 362,000 million euros, with the value of bilateral trade being 650,000 million dollars.
Brussels officials say Beijing accepted several conditions set by the European Union to sign the agreement, including a ban on forced labor.
“China agreed to make continuous and sustained efforts to ratify international conventions on the prohibition of forced labor,” the European Commission said on Tuesday.
“After intense discussions in recent months and concrete developments in recent weeks, China’s necessary substantive commitments have been made on the three key pillars of the negotiations: market access, a level playing field and sustainable development,” said an official. . Political Commission.
China would agree “for the first time” to “strong provisions on sustainable development”, including on the environment and climate, such as the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Although nearly concluded, the talks encountered another hurdle on Tuesday, due to retaliation against Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer, sentenced to 4 years in prison following reports of quarantine in Wuhan. The conviction drew criticism from the German government.
Negotiations on the investment agreement have been going on since 2013 and missed several deadlines, but accelerated in April 2019, when both sides made a political commitment, renewed in September this year, to finalize the agreement before end of 2020. According to diplomats and EU officials, Angela Merkel played a key role in promoting the completion of the deal.
