china-asean investment negotiations problems and prospects：中国-东盟投资谈判的问.docVIP

China-ASEAN Investment Agreement Negotiations: Problems and Prospects CHEN Huiping * INTRODUCTION China and the ten ASEAN countries are neighboring Asian countries. Due to political and economic considerations, as well as China’s own initiative, the two parties decided to develop closer economic relations and establish a free trade area. In November 2002, China and ASEAN signed the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Economic Co-operation between the Association of South East Asian Nations and the People’s Republic of China (“China-ASEAN Framework Agreement” or “Framework Agreement”) in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which came into force on July 1, 2003. The specific goal of the Framework Agreement is to establish China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) by 2010 with the ASEAN-6 and by 2015 with the four new ASEAN members. This Framework Agreement serves as a roadmap for the future Free Trade Area. Formal negotiations on the establishment of the CAFTA began immediately after the signing of the Framework Agreement. The CAFTA negotiations cover negotiations on trade in goods, services and investment. Negotiations on trade in goods resulted in the Agreement on Trading in Goods on November 29, 2004. Service negotiations and investment negotiations are currently being conducted. The investment negotiations began in 2003. General agreements have been reached as to the basic contents and the underlying principles of the future China-ASEAN investment agreement. However, procedural obstacles surfaced when the two parties touched upon the issue of the liberalization of investment. The investment liberalization issue is also the main substantive controversy between the two parties during the negotiations on specific agreement rules. Therefore, this article will first give a general introduction to the investment negotiations in Part II. In Part III, the procedural obstacles on the part of both China, ASEAN and between China and ASEAN will be analyze