International Law

Big Ambitions for US-China BIT?

By Stan

Just for the record:

The United States and China agreed to launch negotiations of a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) today [a couple weeks ago] during the fourth meeting of the United States-China Strategic Economic Dialogue.

In negotiating the BIT, the United States would seek to secure for U.S. companies important legal protections, including the right to:

• non-discriminatory treatment
• fair and equitable treatment, including the right to due process
• compensation in the event of expropriation or nationalization
• free transfers of capital
• transparent regulation
• submit disputes to independent international arbitration

This has been in the works for some time. I dimly recall a negotiating team over here a few months ago from the US government that met with the AmCham legal committee. I attended the meeting (big mistake) and got really pissed off for reasons I will not get into that had nothing at all to do with the government folks.

I have nothing against this sort of bilateral initiative per se, although I wonder what the heck "free transfers of capital" is doing in that list of bullet points. I wonder what that really means, ’cause it certainly can’t mean what it sounds like, unless it’s included there as something the U.S. negotiators can take off the table later as a gesture of magnanimity. I have no idea, just wondering.

Additionally, we all know that submitting something to international arbitration doesn’t really solve any problems unless enforcement works out, but this actually has substance as the major players at this level often do actually play by the rules.

Well, I’ll have to keep an eye on this.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on July 07, 2008 (boomark / email).