China
2. Bilateral Investment Agreements and Taxation Treaties
Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) or Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)
China has 109 BITs currently in force and multiple FTAs with an investment chapter. These agreements cover expropriation, most-favored-nation treatment, and repatriation of investment proceeds, and provide for arbitration. China’s agreements are generally regarded as weaker than the BITs and FTA investment chapters that the United States seeks to negotiate.
A list of China’s signed BITs:
- http://tfs.mofcom.gov.cn/article/Nocategory/201111/20111107819474.shtml ;
- http://investmentpolicyhub.unctad.org/IIA/IiasByCountry#iiaInnerMenu .
The United States and China were actively engaged in BIT negotiations from October 2012 until January 2017. China is currently in negotiations with the European Union (EU), and both jointly announced that market access offers would be exchanged at the EU-China Summit in July 2018.
In addition to BITs, China also has 17 FTAs with its trade and investment partners. It is currently negotiating an additional 11 FTAs and researching 11 more potential FTAs. China’s existing FTA partners are Maldives, Georgia, ASEAN, Republic of Korea, Pakistan, Australia, Singapore, Pakistan, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Costa Rica, Iceland, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. China concluded its FTAs with Maldives and Georgia in 2017.
China’s signed FTAs:
Bilateral Taxation Treaties
The United States and China concluded a bilateral taxation treaty in 1984.