Research On Investment Rules Of Regional Trade Arrangements

As regional economic integration deepens, the regional trade agreements is developing and improving rapidly. Its scope becomes more and more wide, including the regulations concerning trade, investment, intellectual property, competition, etc the relevant rules in many fields. In recent years, with the further deepening of regional economic cooperation, inter-regional investment has become a new hot spot and the investment rules become more and more important in regional trade arrangements. Its content has also been continuously enriched and improved. For this reason, strengthening the study of the investment rules on regional trading arrangements and grasping its development trend are significant to China implementing the regional development strategy and participating in regional economic cooperation.In this thesis, based on the background of the regional economic integration and from the creation, development, connotation and characteristics of the investment rules of regional trade arrangements, it divides the investment rules into four parts:the scope of application of investment rules, investment promotion rules, investment protection rules and the mechanism of dispute settlement. In each part, it analyzes the world's most representative and influential regional economic organizations:North American Free Trade Area (representation of Cooperation between developing and developed countries), European Union, (representation of the high level cooperation between developed countries), ASEAN Free Trade Area (representation of the cooperation among developing countries) and the status of investment rules, its characteristics, and lateral comparison. At last, it analyzes the new signed "China-ASEAN Investment Agreement", and puts forward some relative suggestions.Besides the preface, this thesis elaborates the foresaid issues in five parts:Part one:an overview of investment rules on regional trade arrangements. It's the beginning of this thesis. It first introduced the background of regional cooperation-regional economic integration and major regional trading arrangements, then describes their relationship, and defines the concept of regional trade arrangements. At last, it contains the review of the historical background of the regional trade arrangements, detail of its contents, development and characteristics.Part two:the scope of application of investment rules. First, it defines the applicable rules of investment containing the general content, and then introduces the definition and scope of investment and investors. The core of this part is to introduce of the relevant rules of the NAFTA, the EU, and the ASEAN, analyze its characteristics and make horizontal contrast to draw experiences. It also studies investment rules of the new signed "China-ASEAN Investment Agreement" trying to make some suggestions on how to improve the relative rules.Part three:investment promotion rules. First, it defines the investment promotion rules containing market access mode, treatment of foreign investment and Performance requirements. Then it introduces the relevant rules of the NAFTA, the EU, and the ASEAN, analyze its characteristics and make horizontal contrast to draw experiences. It also studies investment rules of the new signed "China-ASEAN Investment Agreement" and tries to make some suggestions on how to improve the relative rules.Part four:investment protection rules. First, it defines the narrow conceptions of investment protection rules containing nationalization, its compensation and free transfer of investment. Then it introduces the relevant rules of the NAFTA, the EU, and the ASEAN, analyze its characteristics and make horizontal contrast to draw experiences. It also studies investment rules of the new signed "China-ASEAN Investment Agreement" and tries to make some suggestions on how to improve the relative rules.Part five:the mechanism of dispute settlement. First, it emphasizes how important this mechanism. Then it introduces the relevant rules of the NAFTA, the EU, and the ASEAN, analyze its characteristics and make horizontal contrast to draw experiences. It also studies investment rules of the new signed "China-ASEAN Investment Agreement" and tries to make some suggestions on how to improve the relative rules.