An EU-China investment deal is near—but is it ‘worth having?’ REUTERS/Jason Lee After seven years of negotiation, the European Union (EU) and China have reportedly reached an agreement in principle on the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)—and they’ve pledged to finalize it by the end of the year. If signed, the CAI represents another major achievement for China in carving out an economic space for itself in the face of acrimonious contention with the United States, following last month’s signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with other Asian nations. For the EU, the reported deal seems to meet some of its demands for more market access in China. However, the “comprehensive” investment deal appears to be upstaging the substantive consultation in the soon-to-be-revived US-EU partnership, supposedly to coordinate policies in dealing with China’s challenges—something both sides of the Atlantic have signaled in recent weeks.