China Aiming to Conclude Foreign Investment Negotiations With EU This Year

China and the European Union are making progress during their investment negotiations and hope to wrap up a comprehensive investment agreement “as early as possible within the year,” according to an unofficial translation of a May 11 notice from China’s Commerce Ministry. Previous reports indicated the talks might last through 2021, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, particularly because of EU concerns that China’s investment market is “considerably less open than the EU’s” and investment in a “number of sectors is restricted or prohibited.” China said it is “willing to accelerate investment agreement negotiations” to “jointly boost confidence” between the two countries and increase cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. planned to lobby the EU to increase scrutiny of foreign investment involving sensitive technologies, including investment from China (see 2002260042).