The Impacts Of International Investment Agreement Network Development On China And Countermeasures

With development of the economic globalization and regional economic integration, international investment has become an important way to enter the international market and investment activities between the economies are increasingly active.Compared with the international trade and international finance, the international investment has not formed a global international investment agreement.With the countries negotiating rules for several decades, the current management to international investment is based on the network of international investment agreements (IIAs) consisted of the bilateral agreements, regional agreements and multilateral agreements involving investment issues.At the beginning of reform and opening-up,in order to develop the economy and attract foreign investments, Chinese government constantly improves the investment environment and concludes investment agreements.According to the latest statistics of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD),By the end of 2014,China has concluded 147 IIAs, which has the largest number in developing countries.The current network development of IIAs,the lack of international investment rules and Chinese identity shift in international investment are the opportunities for China to participate in IIAs.Under the above background, this thesis tries to clarify the current international investment agreements network,China’s position in the network and the impacts of the network on China.This thesis also puts forward countermeasures for China to negotiate international investment agreements and be a rule-maker of investments, which undoubtedly has significance.This thesis is divided into seven parts.The first part is the introduction.The second part introduces the theoretical basis.The third part describes the present situation and problems of the network of IIAs.The fourth part analyzes the current situation of China’s investment agreements.The fifth part is impacts of the network development of IIAs on China.The sixth part puts forward countermeasures of China in response to the network of IIAs. The seventh part is the conclusion.Through this thesis, the following conclusions can be drawn. First, the number of the latest ⅡAs and the problems of the development of ⅡAs are made clear.By the end of 2014,there are 3268 international investment agreements in the world,including 2923 bilateral investment agreements and 345 other types of investment agreements.The legal basis for the management of international investment is the network of IIAs.The network is based on the "intersected", "overlapped" and "nested" structures.Due to the worldwide network of IIAs increasingly complex, this thesis only draws a network of bilateral investment agreements by the "intersected" structure about 19 countries included China, and makes TTP, TTIP, RCEP as an example to describe the regional situation of IIAs.The motivation of IIAs is to reduce the transaction costs and the dynamic conflicts.The network of IIAs leads to waste resources,hinders international investment and leads to many uncertainties.Second,this thesis makes clear of the international investment agreement network of China and the status in IIAs network.By the end of 2014, the number of bilateral investment agreements concluded by China mainly by the "intersected" structure is the largest in developing countries, second to Germany.Compared to the quality of bilateral investment agreements concluded by the United States,the quality of China’s agreements is not high.Despite the large number of agreements, the agreements are lack of consistency and the quality of them is quite different, which result that the impact of China on investment rules is small.Third, this thesis confirms the effects of the international investment agreement network on China.By the network development of IIAs,the growth of bilateral investment agreements concluded by China slows down and China begins to focus on the conclusion of other types of agreements.For example, in 2012 China,Japan and South Korea reached a trilateral investment agreement and China participated in RCEP negotiations.The agreements network affects the contents of agreements concluded by China,such as,some agreements change the investment definition,accept the terms of the national treatment and fully accept the dispute settlement terms.The network development of the IIAs can improve Chinese domestic investment legislation including the amendments to the foreign investment laws and the Negative List of China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.With the network development of IIAs, China has concluded investment agreements with more than one hundred countries and regions which can create a good investment environment for overseas investments.What’s more,the network also increase the possibility of Chinese investment litigation and the difficulty for the government to coordinate various types of agreements.In addition,the lack of a global international investment agreement provides an opportunity for China to become a rule-maker.Fourth,because the trend of network development of IIAs in the near future will not happen too much change,China should comply with the trend and this thesis puts forward countermeasures in response to the network of investment agreements, the contents of agreements and the domestic investment legislation.In the long run,the inevitable result of the economic development is to achieve a global international investment agreement.China should be prepared in advance and be initiative to participate in the formulation of investment rules.The innovation points of this thesis are mainly reflected in the innovation of the research perspective and the research content.From the perspective of global international investment agreement network,this thesis analyzes the status of investment agreements concluded by China and the impacts of network development on China. The perspective is unique.In terms of the research content, this thesis analyzes three basic structures of the network of IIAs, by which the research content has a certain system.However,the network of IIAs is a dynamic process, involving more aspects.This thesis mainly analyzes from the perspective of China,failing to compare with other countries roundly.What’s more,the quantifying of the impacts of agreements is lacked in this thesis.This thesis mainly adopts the method of combining theoretical analysis and practical analysis and case analysis combined with overall analysis.