U.S. Chamber Welcomes China's Plan to Liberalize Foreign Investment

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Senior Vice President for International Affairs Myron Brilliant issued the following statement today welcoming China's plans to liberalize its investment policy by raising the foreign investment threshold from $100 million to $300 million and increase the transparency of investment approvals, among other moves.

"This is a positive step forward toward liberalizing China's inbound investment policies. By breaking down barriers to international business, we're opening up opportunities to create jobs in both countries as China remains one of the top investment destinations for American businesses.

"Given the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and its companies, the previous threshold represented a small investment by today's standards. This new threshold will promote investment from abroad and foster a more open business environment. China will only benefit from the creativity and competition that foreign companies bring to its market.

"The U.S. business community is also encouraged by the State Council's recent decision to open additional areas to foreign investment by revising the Catalogue Guiding Foreign Investments in Industry.

"The U.S. Chamber urges China to follow through on this announcement and to continue promoting fundamental reforms in its approach to regulating investment from abroad. This will only increase market access, improve transparency and reduce restrictions on American firms seeking to invest in China. Far too many sectors of the Chinese economy are subject to heavy regulation or dominated by state-owned enterprises. We look forward to reviewing the implementing regulations that will contain more specifics about the broad policy approaches.

"But our work is not done in expanding the U.S.-China economic partnership. The Chamber strongly supports continuing the bilateral discussions, including negotiations on an investment treaty, at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade, and the U.S.-China Investment Forum. We look forward to supporting the work of both governments to advance liberalization through these dialogues."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

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