The European Chamber is pleased to invite you to a joint event, organized together with the EU Delegation, on “If EU companies are granted ‘National Treatment’ under the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, will this increase your market access in China?”
This event is a members only - registration only event. Please register online for this event. For security reasons only participants who have pre-registered will be admitted to the event.
Covington has just completed a major report for the European Commission Directorate-General for Trade on Assessing National Treatment as a Basis for Securing Market Access under a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment with the PRC. The report describes the government approval processes applicable to domestic investors, since these processes would also generally apply to European investors if they were granted national treatment under the CAI, and also reviews fundamental policies guiding the approval authorities’ decisions, including industrial policies and policies supporting the state sector.
The report addresses two underlying questions:
1. To what extent are Chinese investors themselves subject to market access restrictions, so that enjoying national treatment would not assure market access?
2. Would a Chinese government violation of a national treatment obligation be provable and enforceable given the nature of the Chinese regulatory system?
The presentation will be given by Tim Stratford, Managing Partner in Covington’s Beijing office and former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative.
Agenda
15:00-15:30 Registration
15:30-15:40 Welcome Remarks by Francisco Perez Canado, Head of the Trade Section at the EU-Delegation to China
15:40-16:30 Presentation by Tim Stratford, Managing Partner in Covington’s Beijing office and former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative
16:30-16:45 Q&A and discussion
Our Speaker: Tim Stratford, Managing Partner in Covington’s Beijing office and former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative
Tim Stratford is managing partner in the Beijing office of Covington & Burling LLP, an international law firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. He advises international clients doing business in China and Chinese companies seeking to expand their businesses globally. Except for the five years he worked in Washington, D.C. as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative responsible for U.S. trade relations with China (2005-10), Mr. Stratford has lived and worked continuously in the greater China region since 1982, including as General Counsel for General Motors’ China operations, Minister-Counselor for Commercial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and as Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.