Open for Business: China lifts limits on foreign investors in several economic sectors

Foreign investors can buy up more of the world’s second-largest economy after China updated a regulatory list that had capped investment across several industries.

While a trade war brews with Trump White House, China has decided to make good on foreign investment reforms and will now allow foreigners to take more ownership in banks, brokerages and car manufacturers, all starting in 2021.

“The reduction of the list means there’ll be more opportunities for cross-border enterprises and it again declares China’s stance of anti-protectionism,” Gai Xinzhe, an analyst at Bank of China Institute of International Finance in Beijing, told Bloomberg.

Other sectors opening up include agriculture, raw material and even energy, with China scrapping a rule that said power grids must be majority Chinese owned.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion in Chinese good, but China then lifted tariffs on several countries including India, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Laos, which could signal the country is trying to reduce its reliance on US imports.

In March, New York developers said they were worried about rising steel prices from tariffs.  “We can ill afford additional costs in the construction industry,” said Plaza Construction Group CEO Richard Wood. [Bloomberg]  — Will Parker