18) China se torna mais dificil a investidores estrangeiros

Pelo menos é o que diz esta matéria do Daily Telegraph, da Grã-Bretanha, e esta é mesmo a minha impressão. Com seu crescimento econômico e desenvolvimento social, a China se torna mais assertiva e passa a exibir traços de nacionalismo antes inexistentes...

China Closes Doors to European Businesses
(Short)
Doing business in China is getting harder, not easier, according to European businesses, as they laid out almost 600 pages of complaints in a new report. The report paints a troubling picture of the Chinese business landscape, filled with discrimination against foreign companies, arbitrary laws and regulations, and abuses of China's World Trade Organization obligations. (telegraph.co.uk)


China closes doors to European businesses
Doing business in China is getting harder, not easier, according to European businesses, as they laid out almost 600 pages of complaints in a new report.
By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
The Daily Telegraph, 02 Sep 2009

The report, from the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, covers the whole gamut of the Chinese economy, from industrial chemicals to mobile phones to banking.

It paints a troubling picture of the Chinese business landscape, filled with discrimination against foreign companies, arbitrary laws and regulations, and abuses of China's World Trade Organisation obligations.

Although China has repeatedly complained about protectionism in the United States and Europe, the report suggests that China is one of the most protectionist major economies.

Joerg Wuttke, the president of the European Chamber, warned that "China needs Europe more than Europe needs China", and pointed out that the EU is a bigger market than the US for China, and exports to European countries make up 7pc of Chinese GDP.

According to the World Bank, China ranks 83rd out of 181 countries in its annual assessment of how easy it is to do business. The emerging superpower scored lower than Kenya, Vanuatu and Colombia, but was judged better than Sierra Leone and Belarus.

Now, however, the business climate is getting worse. Mr Wuttke said in many sectors there had been "a slowdown, and in some cases partial reversal, of the reforms of recent years".

He noted that there have been a rising number of government interventions and that foreign investment restrictions have also increased. The EU report contains over 500 recommendations on how China could improve the situation, drawn from the 1,400 European companies working in the country.

In particular, the report criticises China's joint-venture requirements, which means that foreign companies in some sectors can only own up to 50pc of a company.

In the car sector, Chinese companies are able to buy European car makers, but foreign manufacturers in China have to do joint-ventures to operate and are allowed a maximum of two plants.

Meanwhile, foreign companies have been repeatedly barred for bidding from government contracts, even though China pledged that its Pounds400 billion of stimulus cash would be allocated to both local and foreign firms. "Bids by four foreign-invested wind energy companies in Shanghai, Shandong and Tianjin for a Eu5 billion project for 25 sets of wind turbine generators were rejected in the first round," the report notes.

The European Chamber says foreign companies are "excluded outright" from China's service sector, and uses Amadeus, a Spanish travel-booking company, as an example. More than seven years since China signed up to the WTO, it has still not granted Amadeus, a computer travel reservation system, the right to issue tickets and reservations to the growing Chinese market.

Meanwhile, China's host of technical regulations and certification procedures "blatantly discriminate" against foreign companies, said Dr Wuttke. The report cites an unnamed company that was the market leader in providing encryption services to Chinese banking, telecoms and public transport firms until the government "suddenly" required a new certification from the Office of Security Commercial Code Administration (OSCCA). "Not one foreign company or foreign-invested Chinese company has to date received OSCCA certification," the report points out.

More problems included a lack of transparency over regulations, little consultation, and an unfair enforcement of rules against foreign companies when Chinese firms are rarely picked up.

Dr Wuttke, who has complained in the past that China has not permitted a single major takeover by a foreign company of a domestic firm, also said government decisions were rarely explained. "There was no substantive analysis or evidence supporting the rejection of Coca Cola's merger with Huiyan, which doesn't help dispel suspicions of protectionism," he said.