Ministry Of Commerce: Substantial Progress Has Been Made In Various Aspects In The Seventh Round Of Sino US Trade Negotiations

What concrete results have been achieved in the just concluded seventh round of Sino US trade negotiations?

At a press conference of the Ministry of Commerce on February 28, Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, said that China and the United States had conducted negotiations on the text of the agreement and made substantial progress on specific issues such as technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, service industry, agriculture and exchange rate.

According to a report released recently by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, 62% of American companies interviewed in China still regard China as an important destination for global investment despite trade friction. In this regard, Gao Feng said, "we welcome the foreign chambers of Commerce in China to continue to put forward pertinent opinions and suggestions on China's investment environment. China will continue to promote the expansion of opening up, relax the market access restrictions on foreign investment, establish and improve the foreign investment complaint mechanism, and strive to coordinate and solve the reasonable concerns of foreign investors.".

Investment confidence of us enterprises in China is high

Summit said that the seventh round of China US high level economic and trade consultation has carried out negotiations around the text of the agreement and made substantial progress on specific issues such as technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, service industry, agriculture and exchange rate.

"I don't have more information to reveal about the other specific details of the consultation. On the basis of the seventh round of consultations, the two sides will do a good job in the next step in accordance with the instructions of the two heads of state. "

It is worth noting that the target of this round of negotiations is the "agreement text", rather than the "memorandum of understanding" of the previous round. The Ministry of commerce did not comment on media questions on whether changing the "memorandum of understanding" to "agreement" by US President trump during the current round of negotiations will increase the difficulty of negotiations.

He Weiwen, former economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Consulate General in San Francisco and New York, said in an interview with 21st century economic report that the change from "memorandum of understanding" to "agreement" is mainly to improve the coercive force and binding nature of the negotiation results.

He pointed out that the most important concern now is whether, in terms of implementation procedures, China and the United States still need the approval of the US Congress if an agreement is reached. If necessary, the agreement may face a complicated and lengthy legal process, which may increase the variables of the agreement's landing.

Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told the 21st century economic report that the US Congress generally approves trade agreements rather than general agreements on specific issues; when the United States launched the "301 investigation", it was not approved by Congress, and the corresponding agreements did not have the basis for approval by Congress.

He pointed out that although the trump administration has no intention of submitting the agreement to Congress for approval, U.S. trade representative lethizer told Congress that there is still a lot of work to be done before a trade agreement can be reached.

It is worth noting that, according to the report on China's business environment survey in 2019 released by the American Chamber of Commerce of China on February 26, 62% of the member enterprises regard China as the top priority in their recent global investment plans, and more than 80% of the member enterprises expect the industry to achieve positive growth in 2019.

According to the above report, 69% of the enterprises surveyed achieved profits in 2018, while the other 21% achieved balance of payments. Among them, the income growth of service enterprises is the largest. At the same time, member enterprises remain optimistic about the continuous improvement of China's investment environment. Since the issue was raised by the American Chamber of Commerce in China in 2016, member enterprises' confidence in China's further opening up of the market has reached its highest point.

Bai Ming pointed out that, to some extent, the above-mentioned report reflects the contradictory mentality of American enterprises in China: first of all, China's economy is maintaining stable growth, the growing and wealthy middle-class group is forming a huge market, and the investment environment is also improving. At the same time, economic and trade frictions also bring great uncertainty, which will affect the confidence of these enterprises to expand investment to a certain extent.

He said that recently, China has repeatedly released signals to reduce the restrictions on foreign investment access, promoting the opening up of telecommunications, education, medical care, culture and other fields. In particular, in the areas of health care and education, which have attracted much attention, China will relax the restrictions on foreign capital stock ratio, which will boost the confidence of foreign-funded enterprises in China.

WTO has started informal consultation procedure

In response to the recent high vote of the European Parliament on a security review of foreign investment, Gao Feng pointed out at the above press conference that in the field of international trade and economic cooperation, the European side has always been a supporter of free trade. It is hoped that the European side will uphold an open and inclusive attitude, continue to support trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and create an open, transparent and convenient investment and business environment for investors from all countries, including Chinese enterprises.

He said that in 2018, Chinese enterprises' direct investment in the EU reached 7.82 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. China will continue to encourage all kinds of Chinese enterprises with strength and good reputation to carry out investment and cooperation with Europe in accordance with market principles and international practices, so as to create more jobs and bring more taxes for host countries while developing enterprises themselves, so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Bai Ming pointed out that tightening the investment review system in Europe will reduce the opportunities for China to carry out normal investment. It should be noted that without China's participation, many projects are difficult to carry out in Europe. "For example, infrastructure construction is China's strong point, and China and the EU should further cooperate in this regard. In addition, the EU itself will suffer from the loss of China's 5g."

It is worth noting that China and Europe share common interests in safeguarding the WTO Appellate Body. In 2019, the WTO Appellate Body will face substantial paralysis due to the selection of its members.

There are seven Permanent judges of the WTO Appellate Body, which is equivalent to the Supreme Court of Global trade. Due to the deliberate obstruction of the United States for the appointment of the Appellate Body judges in the past more than a year, there are only three justices left in the appellate body, and the term of office of two of the three will expire in December this year, and the remaining one will end in November 2020.

Gao Feng said that in November last year, China and more than 40 WTO members, including the European Union, jointly submitted two joint proposals on the reform of the appeal procedure for dispute settlement, with a view to resolving such issues as the selection of appellate body members. With the joint efforts of all parties, the WTO General Council has already started the informal consultation process.

Most of the WTO's members, such as tuizumi, are facing a crucial appeal from the WTO's members, such as tuizumi, who are facing the death of the WTO's members.

He said that the previous selection of justices of the appellate body was conducted after the term of office of the former chief justice was over. The proposal hopes to start the selection process before leaving office and select judges as soon as possible, which is conducive to a smooth transition; at the same time, extending the term of office and increasing the number of judges are conducive to the stable operation of the appeal body.

Summit said that China will continue to actively participate in the consultations with a constructive attitude, work with the overwhelming majority of its members to promote the resolution of the Appellate Body crisis, jointly guarantee the normal operation of the dispute settlement mechanism, and safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the multilateral trading system. At the same time, China will assess the relevant progress in a timely manner and make preparations for various responses.

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