The EU-China investment treaty: challenges, themes, competence
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The EU-China investment treaty: challenges, themes, competence David O’Sullivan1
Published online: 7 July 2016 European Union 2016
Abstract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) improves the global economy. Both inward and outward FDI contributes to EU competitiveness and international trade. The importance of the Treaty mirrors the importance of China to the EU economy. China is the EU’s second largest trading partner and also the second largest national economy in the world. The EU-China Investment Treaty advances the shared economic interest of both parties, multilateral investment protection, and environmentally sounder economic development. Keywords Foreign direct investment EU-China investment treaty Global economy Open market EU China Environment
1 Introduction Ladies and Gentlemen, It’s great to be back on campus at Trinity College, my alma mater. A lot has changed since my student days in the mid-1970s—outside these gates is a city positively transformed by international commerce and investment. Even in a period of economic hardship, Dublin is still culturally and commercially very much alive, comfortably cosmopolitan, and bursting with the kind of creativity and entrepreneurial energy I and my peers could only dream of.
Keynote Address Delivered By H.E. David O’Sullivan, the EU Ambassador to the United States on 5th December 2014. & David O’Sullivan [email protected] 1
Washington, DC, USA
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D. O’Sullivan
Many thanks to all involved in organizing this symposium. I should mention that between accepting the invitation and speaking here today, I have changed jobs, taking up the role of the European Union’s Ambassador to the United States, where I will be heavily engaged in the effort to conclude a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement. This speaking engagement is in a sense a holdover from my former role rather than my current one, though the subject of foreign direct investment is an important common thread.
2 FDI: Good for Ireland and a mainstay of EU global engagement As I’ve just alluded, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has had an enormously positive effect on Ireland’s economic development, not to mention the bottom-line of global companies that invested in Ireland. Many jobs and exports here depend on investment, in some cases by multinationals that have been in Ireland for decades and are still expanding their investments. The global consensus is that FDI is a good thing. It allows money to go beyond national borders to business with the best prospects; it protects companies from risk by diversifying their revenues; it promotes the transfer of technology, innovative ideas, best practices and managerial skills, making companies more competitive. And, depending on tax/incentives policy mix in place in the beneficiary country, it can add much needed revenue to the national coffers, but I will come back to that later. None of this is news to you here in Dublin or, indeed, across the EU, but it bears repeating as the EU works its way out of a difficul
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