U.S., China push investment treaty talks along: source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China and the United States agreed to speed up work on an investment treaty after China promised to open up more sectors of its economy to foreign investors, a person familiar with the negotiations said on Friday, adding a deal was not imminent.

"Still, there's a long way to go," the source said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama said after a meeting on Friday that the two countries had agreed to step up work on a bilateral investment treaty.

Before the visit, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said that Beijing needed to narrow its list of proposed exceptions to the proposed bilateral investment treaty, and a source familiar with the talks said progress had been made on that point.

"They definitely had an improvement in their negative list, they came willing to clarify the additional sectors that they wanted to open," the source said. The negative list includes industries in which foreigners cannot invest.

The progress on the investment treaty combined with China's willingness to make commitments to narrow the scope of its security review to push the talks along.

(Reporting by Krista Hughes; Editing by Ken Wills)

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• China's Z.ai says new model nears Anthropic's Mythos 5 in cyber-defence tests
• With Fed mum on next move, investors look to earnings to keep stocks afloat
• Assad-era officer convicted in Austria returns to Syria a free man, sources say