But it was not until the 2013 S&ED meetings that the talks entered a substantial phase after the two countries agreed to conduct negotiations on the basis of pre-establishment national treatment with a negative list approach.
The two sides exchanged initial negative list offers at their latest round of talks in Beijing earlier this month, which ushered in a new phase of bilateral negotiations.
IMPROVED NEGATIVE LIST OFFERS
"The next issue will be the length and quality of the negative lists" after both sides exchanged initial offers, Zhang said, adding that both countries expressed their willingness to make further progress in the next two rounds of negotiations before September and make the negative lists "shorter and better."
Zhu said the two sides agreed to "exchange their improved negative list offers in early September" and would speed up bilateral and domestic consultations on the negative lists between now and then, noting that "we should be aware that there's still much room for improvement."
While Chinese officials had not spoken specifically of the contents of China's negative list, Zhang indicated that the list would be consistent with the overall comprehensive reform agenda announced at the third plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee in late 2013. "We'll liberalize some sectors in an orderly manner, and we'll relax restrictions in some other sectors" according to the decisions of the third plenum, he said.
Zhang said China will further improve its negative list offer " according to the progress we've made in reform and opening up," noting that the experiences of investment liberalization it learnt from free trade zones in Shanghai and other Chinese cities will be incorporated into the negative list discussions.
The United States also needs to improve its negative list offer and its investment climate toward Chinese firms, as more and more Chinese investments have come into the country, he noted.
"There does indeed exist some investment barriers particularly in areas where Chinese companies have some advantages," citing the infrastructure sector, Zhang said, adding that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOE) also face some investment restrictions in the United States.
Posen said a large number of Chinese business leaders were talking about the need for expanding the scale and scope of Chinese investments in the U.S. during his trip to China last month. "I think it would be good for the U.S. to figure out where it can be supportive of, where it can make it easier for Chinese companies investing in the U.S.," he said.
China is currently the fastest growing source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the U.S. and total Chinese FDI stock in the U. S. increased 14 times from 2007 to 2013, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Last year, Chinese firms completed transactions in the United States worth 12 billion U.S. dollars.
PRESIDENT XI'S STATE VISIT
Zhu said the second exchange of negative list offers in early September will be very important because it's in conjunction with Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the United States in the same month.
