The 8th Round of China-EU Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations were held in Brussels on November 30-December 4, 2015. The Chinese delegation is consisted by ten ministries and departments including the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission and China’s Mission to the European Union, and the EU delegation was consisted by EU Trade Committee, EU Internal Market Sub-committee, EU Economic and Financial Sub-committee. After the negotiations, the two sides made great progress in range of topics of the BIT, and agreed to confirm the consensus as soon as possible and strive to achieve the negotiation goals settled in last June by leaders of both sides by the end of this year. In addition, the two sides also made arrangements in making the merged text . Starting from January 2016, the two sides will step up substantive text negotiations on the basis of merged text.
China-EU BIT negotiation is one of the most important trade and economic negotiations that China conducts at present. It not only conduces to deepening the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, improving bilateral trade and economic cooperation, and unleashing the potential of two-way investment, but also injects vigor to deepen China’s reform, to expand its opening up, and to construct its new open economic system. Launched in November 2013, the negotiations aimed to reach higher-level agreement covering the investment protection and market access as soon as possible based on the investment protection agreement that China has signed with EU members. It’s also the first investment treaty negotiation that the EU committee conducted on behalf of its members since the Lisbon Treaty came into effects in 2009.