China has established the Belt and Road Initiative International Commercial Court-Connected and Mediation Centre, which is intended to resolve commercial disputes between China and the ASEAN countries. In this article, the author analyses the advantages and disadvantages of this action, and suggests ways of improving the mechanism.

China has a closer business relationship with Southeast Asian countries under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). To ensure tax certainty for the investment, it is necessary to establish an effective and efficient tax dispute resolution mechanism. The mutual agreement procedure (MAP) is the primary means, but it has its limitations, especially for countries in this region. Arbitration could be a powerful complementary to the MAP. China has established a new BRI Court-connected and Mediation Centre (Centre) that aims to resolve commercial disputes in this region. It seems like a new alternative for resolving tax disputes since it combines mediation with arbitration. This article analyzes the pros and cons of adopting arbitration as a complementary means to the MAP in this region. It further discusses the advantages and concerns for the Centre. Although the Centre encourages using mediation to resolve disputes, which could address problems of direct arbitration, it is difficult to maintain impartiality from its current rough rules and its position. This article makes suggestions on improving the mechanism to guarantee the impartiality by selecting mediators and arbitrators with knowledge of the region, endowing disputants the right to appeal, and increasing transparency.

Since its announcement in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as the New Silk Road, has gradually gained international recognition. The project requires not only extensive investment in infrastructure and transportation but also an acceleration of the internationalization of multinationals and supply chains in Belt and Road countries. The project will, hopefully, lead governments and businesses in countries along the Belt and Road to compete, adopt best practices and improve transparency. The BRI marks a national push by China to increase economic links to Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Russia, the Baltic region (Central and Eastern Europe), Africa and Latin America, which will have major consequences for the way that tax systems interact. Emerging from the research conducted by the WU Global Tax Policy Center in cooperation with several Chinese universities, this book offers fourteen policy-relevant research papers prepared by international experts on the following issues: • The New Silk Road: Will Tax Be a Facilitator or a Barrier? • Neo-BEPS: China’s Prescription for International Tax Reform Embodying the Rationality of the Belt & Road Initiative; • International Taxation Coordination under China’s Belt and Road Strategy; • Tax Issues in the Main Belt and Road Countries and Industries of China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment; • Preferential Arrangements under Chinese Tax Treaties with Belt and Road Countries and Disputes Regarding Their Applicability; • Tax Planning by Going-Global Enterprises for Cross-Border Earnings: Observations Based on Belt and Road Countries; • International Taxation Issues under the Belt and Road Initiative: Corporate Income Tax Laws and Tax Treaties; • Financial and Tax Operations in the Five Central Asian Countries; • The Role of Border-Crossing Procedures in the Transportation of Goods along the New Silk Road; • Transfer Pricing Issues Related to the Belt and Road Initiative; • Tax Treaties between Belt and Road Countries; • VAT Challenges in the Belt and Road Initiative; • Global Tax Policy Post-BEPS and the Perils of the Silk Road; and • Creating a Positive Tax Climate for Complex Multijurisdictional Investment Projects. Outcomes presented in the book consist of findings presented during Tax Policy Forum on the Belt and Road Initiative held on 12–13 June 2017 in Beijing, jointly organized with Peking University Tax Law Center and the Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing. These papers also formed the basis for input by WU Global Tax Policy Center at the first meeting of The Belt and Road Initiative Tax Cooperation Conference (BRITCC) held in Astana on 14–16 May 2018, in which it was agreed to establish a permanent forum to examine the tax issues that arise from the BRI. The WU Global Tax Policy Center will continue to provide inputs to this forum.

In this article, the author analyses the tax risks faced by Chinese enterprises that invest in ASEAN countries under China's Belt and Road Initiative. In this context, the article discusses inter alia the impact of the presence of permanent establishments, limitations on foreign tax credits, the need for tax sparing provisions in China's double tax treaties with ASEAN countries, transfer pricing, controlled foreign company rules, exchange of information, treaty abuse and tax dispute resolution for Chinese investors. The author offers recommendations to Chinese investors and China's tax authority on tax risk management, so that they and China may gain maximum benefit from the Initiative.

This forward-looking book examines dispute resolution issues in the context of Belt and Road Initiative dealings between parties in ASEAN Member States, China and other trade partners. It discusses a range of commercial dispute issues and economic agreements including free trade agreements and investment agreements, both bilateral and regional. Locknie Hsu presents research on dispute settlement options and emerging issues for ASEAN businesses relating to projects and transactions undertaken in relation to the Belt and Road Initiative. She translates these options and issues into opportunities in economic treaty negotiations, utilization of national and regional dispute settlement institutions and better handling of emerging issues (such as environment-related claims and technology applications in dispute resolution) and in legal capacity-building in ASEAN. The book explores findings from academic research, empirical information, selected Case Studies (on environmental and other claims in ASEAN and beyond) and salient legal and technological developments, to provide insights and lessons that make this original book a rich and useful legal and research resource. This book's recommendations will provide food for thought for policy-makers and treaty negotiators who are considering new possibilities and directions to make dispute settlement a better and more fruitful experience in ASEAN. It will also be of interest to practitioners, scholars and students of commercial law, international trade law and dispute resolution, particularly in an Asian context.

The aim of this article is to understand the dispute settlement mechanism in the ASEANChina Free Trade Agreement, hereinafter ACFTA. The ACFTA consists of ten ASEAN members plus one, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and China. This article will present the current situation and motives behind China and the ASEAN's Free Trade Area engagement. The ACFTA was signed in order to embrace the opportunities and face the challenges of being integrated into the region's economy. One of the major limitations of ASEAN economic regulation, especially free trade regulation, is the ASEAN's underdeveloped Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). Interestingly, the number of cases that have arisen under the ACFTA is nil since its creation in 2005, which places the ACFTA DSM in doubt over its effectiveness. The legal problems regarding the China-ASEAN free trade area (FTA) will also be discussed in this article. Furthermore, this article focuses on what would be an appropriate DSM's framework, and its legal issues concerning how the dispute settlement mechanism from the perspective of the ACFTA, should be developed in order to improve the China-ASEAN dispute resolution mechanism and facilitate legal research of countries in the region.

This forward-looking book examines dispute resolution issues in the context of Belt and Road Initiative dealings between parties in ASEAN Member States, China and other trade partners. It discusses a range of commercial dispute issues and economic agreements including free trade agreements and investment agreements, both bilateral and regional.