BEIJING: Significant progress has been made on a long-awaited investment treaty between China and the EU, China’s Foreign Ministry revealed on Tuesday, sending a bullish signal for a major breakthrough in the economic and trade relationship between two of the world’s largest economies.
Describing negotiations over the China-EU Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), also known as the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), as the most important agenda for the current China-EU relationship, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular press conference Tuesday that under the two sides’ joint efforts, the CAI talks have made significant progress and the prospects (of the signing of the treaty) are foreseeable.
It is hoped the deal will be struck soon to provide a staunch institutional framework for China-EU economic and trade cooperation, creating tangible benefits for businesses and the people from both sides, according to Wang.
Since the BIT talks kicked off in 2013, 35 rounds of negotiations have been held, stoking expectations for the two sides to conclude the talks by year’s end, a deadline which has previously been agreed on.
“Wang’s remarks send out a very positive signal that a breakthrough is expected as soon as this week,” Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Echoing Cui, Dong Dengxin, director of the Finance and Securities Institute at the Wuhan University of Science and Technology, said there is a big chance of the two sides clinching the deal in the very near future.
Dong based his optimism on China’s unwavering vow to open up its economy, a beacon of hope for the EU economy that has taken a battering from a double whammy of the pandemic and US-advocated protectionism.
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
