The RCEP and its investment rules: Learning from the malleability of Chinese FTAs
Publication Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2-2019
Abstract
The chapter analyses China’s FTA approach to investment in terms of malleability, and its implications for the RCEP. The following questions are discussed: what is the trend of China’s FTA approach to investment concerning malleability? Is China a rule follower, shaker, or maker? How may China’s approach the RCEP regarding investment? The chapter demonstrates, firstly, that China is willing to substantially improve rules and embrace newer style investment stipulations. The ChAFTA contains innovative safeguards of regulatory autonomy and ISDS procedural features (including the roster of arbitration panellists, the public welfare notice, the code of conduct for arbitrators, and the joint interpretation of the annex by treaty parties). Secondly, China will probably be a rule shaker in the short to medium term, and possibly becomes a rule-maker in the long term. Its approach may evolve from selective adaption to targeted innovation. The reason is plain as China will be increasingly active in the development of investment norms due to the need to protect its outbound investment and enhance investor confidence in inbound investment. As a rule-shaker in the RCEP negotiations, China will often modify proposals of partners rather than offer a new set of clauses. Given various factors (including the unique nature of mega FTA, ‘stockpile’ of existing investment agreements, and China’s approach to the ASEAN), China may take a more flexible stance in the RCEP than in bilateral FTAs. The RCEP will affect the shaping of China’s FTA approach to investment.
Keywords
China, RCEP, China–Korea FTA, ISDS, foreign direct investment, investor–state dispute settlement
Discipline
Asian Studies | International Trade Law
Publication
China's International Investment Strategy: Bilateral, Regional, and Global Law and Policy
Editor
Julien Chaisse
First Page
243
Last Page
257
ISBN
9780198827450
Publisher
Oxford University Press
City or Country
Oxford
Citation
WANG, Heng.
The RCEP and its investment rules: Learning from the malleability of Chinese FTAs. (2019). China's International Investment Strategy: Bilateral, Regional, and Global Law and Policy. 243-257.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/4494
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198827450.003.0014
Comments
Published as a journal article in 2017: “The RCEP and Its Investment Rules: Learning from Past Chinese FTAs”, Chinese Journal of Global Governance, 3 (2),160-181.