Chinese Investment in Nexen: to Reject or to Accept, That is the Question

In recent years, trade between China and Canada has maintained a rapid growth. According to Chinese statistics, in 2011, the bilateral trade volume reached 47.45 billion U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year growth of 27.8%. According to the Canadian side, China is the second-largest trading partner (after the United States), the second-largest source of imports and the third largest export market. At the same time, two-way investment between the two countries is booming. As of the end of July this year, Canada's actual investment in China reached US$8,577,000, with investment of Chinese enterprises of all types in Canada over 16 billion U.S. dollars. Canada has become one of the important destinations for Chinese enterprises to invest overseas.

In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail at his Ottawa residence, Mr. Zhang, Beijing's ambassador, said that if Canada wants new broad, investment rules and guarantees that its companies will get greater access to investment and markets in China, it should strike a wide-ranging, “overall” free-trade agreement with Beijing. Rejecting the CNOOC bid could cause the chill of earlier years to return. But Mr. Harper also must deal with domestic political qualms as some Canadians raise concerns about China’s rights record, its intentions, and questions from the business community about whether it would have equal access to China’s economy. Chen dismissed the saying that Beijing plans to control Canadian oil and gas citing that China amounts to only 2% in foreign investment in Canada. Also, there are 12,000 Canadian companies in China dating back from as early as the 1980's including Manulife, Scotiabank, Bank of Montreal and Bombardier. Chen stressed: It’s really the benefits that matter. But I stress: two-way benefits. Not one-way to China.

Problems tyo Be Solved Regarding the Sino-Canada Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (signed on September 9, 2012):
In the second part, about the national treatment provisions, with reference to the investment chapter of the free trade agreement between China and Peru, the Agreement expressed only made ​​a general description of the existing non-conforming measures not involving entry requirements before national treatment, nor providing a negative list of non-conforming measures. In the fourth part, the "general exceptions" clause provides for the exception of the measures of the cultural industry, the fundamental security interests exceptions and competition law enforcement and information disclosure exceptions, etc., which may involve an equitable consideration. The validity period of the Agreement is made as 15 years.

近年来，中加两国贸易保持较快增长。据中方统计，2011年，中加双边贸易额达到474.5亿美元，同比增长27.8%。据加方统计，中国是加第二大贸易伙伴（仅次于美国）、第二大进口来源地和第三大出口市场。同时，两国双向投资蓬勃发展。截至今年7月底，加在华实际投资85.77亿美元，中国企业对加拿大各类投资超过160亿美元，加已成为中国企业海外投资的重要目的地之一。

在渥太华他住处接受环球邮报记者专访时，北京大使张先生表示，如果加拿大希望新的涵盖广阔的投资规则，并保证其公司将获得更大的对中国投资和市场准入机会，它应该与北京达成一个广泛的，“整体的”自由贸易协定。拒绝中海油的收购请求可能导致回到寒冷的过去。不过，哈珀还必须处理国内的政治疑虑，一些加拿大人提出对一些问题的担忧，包括中国的人权纪录，其收购意图，以及商界对于能否享有平等机会问题的关注。陈驳回了北京计划控制加拿大石油和天然气的说法，中国外商在加拿大的投资只有2％的加拿大石油和天然气。此外，在中国，早在20世纪80年代开始，包括宏利，蒙特利尔银行，加拿大丰业银行和庞巴迪等12000家加拿大公司就有进入中国。陈强调，双方互惠互利是最重要的。

中国商务部长陈德铭表示，不论中国哪些企业进行投资、投资到哪些领域，都属于市场行为，由企业自主决策，并遵守东道国的法律法规。希望加政府和社会各界能够以包容、理性的态度看待中国企业的投资。

中加双边投资保护协定（2012年9月9日签署）待解决问题：
第二部分中，关于国民待遇条款，《协定》参照《中国与秘鲁自由贸易区协定》投资章节的表述，对现存不符措施仅作了概括性描述，未涉及准入前国民待遇准入要求，也没有规定不符措施的负面清单。第四部分中，“一般例外”条款规定了文化产业相关措施的例外、根本安全利益例外、竞争执法信息披露例外等内容，可能会引起对等方面的考虑。关于《协定》的有效期，《协定》规定为15年。