Comprehensive Agreement on Investment

[9][10] Some US commentators say it may damage relations with the US as the EU hands China a political win at the expense of incoming president Joe Biden.

[3] Reinhard Bütikofer, the chair of the parliament's delegation for relations with China, who was hit by the Chinese sanctions, said, "The fate of this deal is very much in question."

[4] On 24 March, Dombrovskis, the EU's trade commissioner, warned China, saying that the “ratification process cannot be separated from the evolving dynamics of the wider EU-China relationship”, also referring to these counter-sanctions.

[17] Political scientist David Camroux wrote in the Financial Times that China had made several important concessions in the CAI negotiations to get the deal signed in advance of US president Biden's inauguration, and that it is now intentionally using these counter-sanctions to dissuade MEPs from ratifying it, giving China a way of backing away from these concessions while still being able to show "its good multilateral intentions".

[18] The chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, said he hoped the CAI "will take effect as soon as possible", despite the block by the European Parliament over a sanctions dispute.