A Study Of Negtive List Over China’s Four Free Trade Zone And The Prospect Of China-US BIT

In early 2015, China and the United States started negotiations on the negative list and the two parties will exchange the third round of the negative list soon. Therefore, the mode of pre-establishment national treatment and negative list, launched by the U.S. based on its 2012 Model BIT,is gradually received extensive attention. This mode is not only beneficial to foreign and domestic investors to have a more comprehensive protection, but also protective to related industries in host countries to a certain extent. Apart from the United States, Canada, Japan and other developed countries,Mexico, Vietnam and other developing countries have also agreed to accept this mode.Based upon the needs of further liberalization of investment, in order to adjust to internationalized trend of the mode of pre-establishment national treatment and negative list, connect with the "one belt and one road" and prepare further negotiation for China-USA BIT, China set up China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone in 2013, and Tianjin, Fujian and Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zones in 2015.Besides, China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Foreign Merchants Investment Access Special Management Measures (negative list)andFour Free Trade Zones Foreign Merchant Access Special Management Measures (negative list) have been promulgated. Compared with the two previous versions of the negative lists of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade,the negative list of the Four Free Trade Zones has been improved. However, several problems do exist. To solve these problems, some suggestions are offered.This dissertation is divided into five parts. In the first part, the concept,legal basis and generating reasons of negative list, as well as the nature of negative list ofthe Four Free Trade Zones are introduced.By analyzing the existing problems of negative list of the Four Free Trade Zones, its deficiencies are revealed in the second part.Concretely,deficienciessuch as lack of corresponding legal support, the criteria for classification are not in line with international ones,lackof regulations on prospective industries,and low transparency of the management measures are included.The third partselects NAFTA,which creates the negative list management mode, USA, currently engaged in the China-USA BIT negotiation, Japan, which is in a leading position in Asian investment as well as Philippines, whichadopts the negative list mode in comparatively early days to make an analysis. Combined with the feature of the negative list, this partelaborates on foreign experiences of negative list in terms of its elements and modification. Besides, this part compares the content of negative list of the Four Free Trade Zones with foreign experiences.In the fourth part, suggestions are put forward to improve the negative list of the Four Free Trade Zones. It is suggested to improve current laws and regulations, adjust criteria for classification and internal structure to keep up with international practices. Improvingtransparency of the management measures are recommended as well.Under the background of the China-USA BIT, the fifth part raises some prospects on the negative list of China-USA BIT accordingly. It is advised that China shall attachgreat importance to the elements of non-conforming measures,consider solutions to the problem of beingmerely on the decreaseandprotect possible industriesmay appear in future in advance.Besides, China shall prevent abuse of the most-favored-nationtreatment as well as build the negative list mode in line with Chinese unique features.