2013 Reports

A business perspective on a China - US bilateral investment treaty

Donnelly, Shaun E.

The recent Perspective “A China - US bilateral investment treaty: A template for a multilateral framework for investment” by Karl P. Sauvant and Huiping Chen raises very important issues. I welcome the focus on the US-China investment negotiations and believe Sauvant and Chen are asking many key questions. But their analysis and their recommendations end up, I believe, seriously off-track. I will offer an alternative perspective, one shaped both by my previous life as an international economic policy-maker/negotiator at the State Department and the US Trade Representative’s office and my current role at the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), representing global companies on investment policy issues, including investment treaties.