Sanne : The European Commission publishes market access offers of the EU-China investment agreement

The CAI's objective is to rebalance the asymmetry in terms of market access and investment between the EU and China. This means new openings for EU operators in several sectors, on top of the autonomous market access already made by China over the last 20 years.

In concrete terms, China takes substantial commitments in manufacturing, which makes up more than half of total EU investment in China - including 28% for the automotive sector and 22% for basic materials. China has currently no commitments vis-à-vis the EU in this area.

In the services sector, China takes substantially improved commitments across the board, and in particular in telecommunications, financial services, private healthcare, environmental services, R&D and air transport-related services.

Importantly, China also offers new targeted market openings that go beyond its current autonomous level of liberalisation. These consist of lifting current restrictions on joint venture requirements (in hospitals and clinics), economic needs tests (in electric cars manufacturing), foreign investment bans (in cloud services) or monopoly rights (in computer reservation systems).

All these openings are reflected in the market access offers that detail the economic sectors to which the commitments apply (and possible reservations to those commitments).

Chinese companies seeking to invest in Europe will continue to be able to do so. Any restrictions the EU or its Member States may have in place remain unaffected, as well as the policy space needed, for example, to enable the autonomous measures.