Mittal urges China to ease rules on investment

China should ease rules on inward investment, Lakshmi Mittal, the chairman and chief executive officer of the world's largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal, said in an interview published Monday.
"You cannot expect business people in the US to be relaxed (about planned inward investments by Chinese companies) if their attempts to do the same thing in China are covered by restrictions," he told the Financial Times in Tokyo.
Mittal was speaking in light of a row in the United States over a plan by Anshan Iron and Steel (Ansteel), one of China's biggest steelmakers, to join a 168 million dollar venture to build a plant in Mississippi, the report said.
"In today's free market, I don't think you can stop projects by Chinese companies to expand overseas," Mittal said.
But he added Beijing had to become more relaxed about the conditions under which foreign companies could participate in running China-based businesses, saying: "There has to be a two-way aspect to policy."
State-run Ansteel signed a formal agreement with Mississippi-based Steel Development Company in September that includes construction of five plants in the United States.