After several snags, both Washington and Beijing announced that they are going to start where they left off on the proposed investment treaty. The said agreement could propel two of the biggest economies to the next level.
The planned treaty was already shelved several times only for both countries to dust it off again, which speaks volumes about its significance. Negotiations started during the tenure of former President George W. Bush but was forgotten when President Barack Obama took office.
Then there was the insistence of Beijing to protect certain industries in the service sector, but later withdrew that requirement. Just recently, China's support to former CIA contractor Edward Snowden again struck a bad note with the U.S. government.
In justifying the new talks, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said they consider the U.S. a strong economic ally since it has US $20 billion of foreign direct investments in the U.S. as well as US $1.2 trillion in U.S. Treasury Bills.
"It is necessary for the two sides to have an institutional environment for the protection of these investments," he said.
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