The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

On January 29, 2021, the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade (IFAT) organized an online roundtable discussion entitled “The EU-China Investment Agreement”. The participants of the event were Sándor Kusai, Honorary Associate Professor at Pázmány Péter Catholic University and former Ambassador of Hungary to China, and Csaba Wolf, Senior China Analyst at Baker McKenzie and former Foreign Trade Attaché in Beijing. The event was hosted by Gergely Salát, senior researcher at IFAT. 

In his introductory presentation, Csaba Wolf described the circumstances and main points of the EU-China Comprehensive Investment Agreement (CAI). According to the presentation, the essence of the agreement is to create the same opportunities for European companies in the Chinese market as the Chinese had in Europe so far, as the European market had been much more open than the Chinese. European investors will no longer be required to set up a joint venture with a Chinese partner if they want to invest in China, and then practice of forced technology transfer will also be abolished. However, there is no clear communication about what concessions the EU has made to China. 

After the presentations, the event continued with questions and answers about the specific content of the CAI and the expected degree of China’s compliance to it. 

The full recording (in Hungarian) is available at the link below or on our YouTube channel!