WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SCM/130 
28 October 2009 
 (09-5378) 
Committee on Subsidies 
and Countervailing Measures  
 
 
 
CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS 
ON TRANSITIONAL REVIEW OF CHINA  
 
 1. The Committee on Subsidies and Counterva iling Measures undertook the eighth transitional 
review of China pursuant to paragraph 18 of the Protocol on the Accession of the People's Republic of 
China (WT/L/432) at its regular meeting held on 20 October 2009.  
2. Annex 1A to the Protocol requires China to submit information on the following to this 
Committee: "Pricing Policies":  (a) "application of ex isting or any other price controls and the reason 
for their use"; and (b) "pricing mechanisms of Chin a's state trading enterprises for exported products".  
China submitted the information in this respect on 5 October 2009, which has been circulated in 
document G/SCM/N/198.  
3. Questions submitted in the context of the 200 9 transitional review have been circulated in 
documents G/SCM/W/548 (United States) and G/SCM/W/550 (European Communities).  The 
Statements made in the context of this transiti onal review at the meeting of 20 October 2009 are 
reflected in the minutes of the meeting, the relevant paragraphs of which are annexed. 
 G/SCM/130 
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Excerpt from the minutes of the regular meeting of the Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing 
Measures held on 20 October 2009, to be  circulated as document G/SCM/M/71  
 E. TRANSITION REVIEW UNDER PARAGRAPH 18 OF THE PROTOCOL OF 
ACCESSION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TO THE WORLD TRADE 
ORGANIZATION   
 
1. The Chairman
 recalled that paragraph 18 of the Prot ocol of Accession of the People's Republic 
of China to the World Trade Organization provided th at all subsidiary bodies, including this Committee, 
"which have a mandate covering China's commitmen ts under the WTO Agreement or [the] Protocol 
shall, within one year after accession, review, as appropriate to their mandate, the implementation by 
China of the WTO Agreement and of the rela ted provisions of [the] Protocol."   
2. China was to provide relevant information in advance of the review, including information 
specified in Annex 1A to the Protocol.  China could also raise issues relating to any reservations under 
Section 17 or to any other specific  commitments made by other Member s in the Protocol, in subsidiary 
bodies which had a relevant mandate.  This Committee had to repor t the results of the review promptly 
to the Council for Trade in Goods.  Review was to take place  after accession in each year for eight years, 
with a final review in year 10 or at an earlier date decided by the General Council. 
3. The Chairman indicated that the Protocol c ontained no procedures for the conduct of the 
transition review, except that China was to provide re levant information in advance of the review.  In 
this regard, Annex 1A specified th at China was requested to provide information on the following to the 
Committee in accordance with Article 18.1 of its  Accession Protocol:  "Pricing Policies": (a) 
"application of existing or any other price contro ls and the reason for thei r use"; and (b) "pricing 
mechanisms of China's st ate trading enterprises for exported pr oducts".  The notification by China 
provided for in Annex 1A had been circulated in  document G/SCM/N/198, dated 5 October 2009.  The 
United States and the European Communities had submitted questions in the context of this transition 
review, which had been circulated in documen ts G/SCM/W/548 and G/SCM/W/550, respectively. 
4. The delegate of the United States  noted that the principal purpose of the transitional review 
mechanism was to examine China's compliance with its WTO obligations.  One of these obligations 
was to provide a timely and complete subsidy notifica tion.  After nearly five years as a WTO Member, 
China had submitted its first subsidy notification in  2006, covering the period 2001- 2004.  While this 
was a positive step, the notification was largely incomple te as it failed to include a single sub-central 
government measure. 
5. The delegate of the United States indicated that , as the United States had highlighted in prior 
submissions to the Committee, provincial and local au thorities in China played a very important role 
in implementing industrial policy, including subsidy policy.  Recent academic literature, for example, 
indicated that local governments were responsible fo r nearly 20 per cent of China's investment, much 
of which was misdirected into sectors with excess cap acity, such as steel.  Therefore, the notification 
of sub-central government measures by China was imperative.  The timeliness of China's subsidy 
notifications was also of obvious concern.  China lagging behind for four years in providing its 
subsidy notifications was particul arly troubling because some of Ch ina's subsidy programmes expired 
after two years.  Given this fact, the delays in  China's subsidy notifications effectively denied 
Members' ability to analyze and meaningful ly question China's subsidy programmes. 
6. In light of these very significant issues, the Un ited States had been surprised when, last year, 
China had firmly rejected any implication that it had failed to fulfil its transparency commitments in 
the area of subsidies and failed to provide any speci fic timetable for bringing itself into compliance.  
In accordance with Annex 1A(i) of China's Working Party Report and Article 18. 1 of China's Protocol  G/SCM/130 
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  of Accession, China was obligated to provide annual economic development plans, five-year 
programmes, and any industrial or sectoral program mes or policies promulgated by central and sub-
central government entities.  While China had provided  some limited informati on with respect to its 
national five-year plans, it appeared as though it had not provided any information with respect to the 
industrial policies and programmes of sub-central  government entities.  The delegate of the 
United States therefore requested that China iden tify and provide citations to all of the current 
provincial five-year plans and current provincial prog rammes and policies at least for all sectors that 
the central government had d eemed as basic, pillar, strate gic or key industry (e.g., 
telecommunications, civil aviation, machinery, autos,  steel, base metals, chemical, etc.).        
7. The delegate of the United States continued that another of the obligations China had 
assumed upon joining the WTO was not to provide any prohibited subsidies.  The United States and other WTO Members had raised nume rous questions over the years with respect to what had appeared 
to be unreported subsidy programmes at various le vels of government that were contingent upon 
export performance or the use of domestic over im ported goods.  The United States continued to find 
these types of measures.  As an example, the dele gate of the United States quoted a statement from 
Hunan Province's 2009-2011 plan indicating that subs idies for products exported by ramie processing 
companies would be provided.  
8. The delegate of the United States added that in the context of subsidies provided for the use of 
domestic goods, China's recent plan for machinery established a risk compensation mechanism to 
encourage the first use of domestically-produced machin ery.  It was particularly troubling, as the end 
of the period for the transitional review mechan ism was approaching, to see China taking what 
seemed to be steps backward rath er than forward, by implementing what appeared to be new 
prohibited subsidy programmes at nearly all levels of  government.  This was not tenable, the delegate 
of the United States added, stressing that China needed  to meet its obligations to provide a timely and 
complete subsidy notification cove ring all levels of government, and to terminate without delay any 
prohibited subsidies in place. 
9. A third obligation undertaken by China upon joining the WTO was that it would not 
influence, directly or indirectly, commercial decisi ons on the part of state-owned or state-invested 
enterprises, as set forth in paragraph 46 of the Working Party on China's Accession.  The delegate 
noted that the approximately 150 SOE holding comp anies owned by the State Assets Supervision and 
Administration Commission ("SASAC") controlled th ousands of companies across a wide range of 
industries and accounted for most of the profits in the SOE sector.  Further, as had been noted in the 
last transitional review exercise, the General Offi ce of the State Council established a mechanism by 
which profits from SOEs would fund the re-organiza tion of state-owned enterprises, consistent with 
national industrial policies and planning.  China had not, in last year's trade review mechanism, 
addressed the fundamental issue of how state-owne d enterprises could operate on a purely commercial 
basis when they had to make i nvestment decisions in accordance with government industrial policy.  
If China's ownership and management decisions were not based on commercial considerations, 
subsidy issues could arise.  Given this, the delega te of the United States asked China how it intended 
to proceed with its plans for restructuring the SOE sector and at the same time meet its WTO 
obligation to operate its SOEs solely on a co mmercial basis, without government influence. 
10. Finally, the delegate of the United States noted  that China was obligated to notify to the 
Committee the application of any price controls and the reason for their use.  In the context of the 
significant rise in international oil prices the last  year, it had been widely  reported and acknowledged 
by the Chinese Government that the price of oil products had been held down by the government and 
that Chinese refineries received significant subsidi es to cover their losses.  The delegate of the 
United States requested that Chin a describe the current government price controls on oil products, 
how the government compensated companies for loss es incurred due to these price controls, and the 
current status of China's energy price reform effo rts, particularly with respect to fuel prices. G/SCM/130 
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  11. The delegate of the European Communities  expressed appreciation for the transitional review 
mechanism as a useful supplement for additional tr ansparency about China's trade regime and in 
particular about its subsidies policy in additi on to bilateral discussions and China's subsidy 
notification.  The delegate of the European Co mmunities added that Chin a had submitted a subsidy 
notification in 2006 covering the period 2001 to 2004 and that in the last transitional review 
mechanism, the delegate of China had stated that China was working to update this notification which 
would cover years 2005-2008.  While the European  Communities appreciated the efforts undertaken 
by China to submit a complete and timely s ubsidy notification, China had yet to submit its 
notification to the Committee, one year after the last transitional review mechanism exercise.  Two 
notifications were missing, one for the peri od 2005-2006 and the second fo r the period 2007-2008. 
The delegate of the European Communities noted that it was also unclear whether China's next 
subsidy notification would cover subsidies at the sub-federal level.  Subsidies provided by sub-
national governments was an area specifically highlighted by Members in paragraph 173 of the 
Working Party Report on China's accession to th e WTO.  The European Communities was therefore 
concerned by the fact that China might again pr ovide an incomplete subsidy notification.  The 
delegate of the European Communities noted that  the EC trade defence investigating authorities 
continued to uncover subsidy schemes, in particul ar in the steel sector.  The existence of these 
subsidies had been confirmed by a number of indepe ndent studies and by the rapid growth of China's 
steel exports in recent years.   
12. China's continued failure to submit a complete  subsidy notification in due time left WTO 
Members with only one of two options : to tolerate China's disregard fo r the legitimate interests of its 
trading partners regarding transparency and notificati on requirements;  or to resort to formal dispute 
settlement proceedings – a path – one could assume – both sides would prefer to avoid.  Moreover, 
China appeared to use a practice wher eby it restricted the export of certain raw materials which in turn 
depressed the prices of those raw materials when used in the downstream manufacturing industry.  
This practice could effectively amount to a subsid ization of inputs for cer tain downstream products, 
and was often coupled with various incentiv es for exports of the downstream product. 
13. In light of this, the European Communities w as looking forward to receiving replies to the 
questions submitted ahead of the Committee meeting. 
14. The delegate of Japan  noted that Japan had not submitted  written questions but wished to 
make certain remarks with regard to transparen cy.  Japan was concerned about China not having 
made the required 2007 and 2009 new and full subsidy notifications.  In light of the sound and fair 
function of the surveillance mechanism under th e SCM Committee, Japan urged China to submit 
these two notifications as required under Article 25 of the SCM Agreement. 
15. The delegate of Canada  thanked the delegations of the United States and the European 
Communities for their detailed communications an d the delegation of Japan for the comments it 
provided.  Canada agreed that the subsidy notifica tion process was an important transparency exercise 
and hoped that China would make every effort to submit its new and full notifications in a timely 
manner.  Canada shared the United States' con cerns about China's industrial policies and their 
linkages with respect to subsidisation.  On nume rous occasions, Canada had sought clarifications 
regarding China's iron and steel policy.  Canada's c oncerns centred on the high degree of intervention 
of the Chinese government in the direction and deci sion-making regarding the allocation of resources 
into and out of its steel industry, including subsidi sation.  Canada therefore shared the United States' 
interest in learning more about the relationship be tween China's national five-year plans and specific 
government policies.  The delegate of Canada noted the efforts of China's Ministry of Industry and 
Information to reduce and/or eliminate steel-mak ing capacity in China and requested that China 
provide any available information on any possible role that subsidization would or could play in this 
endeavour.  Canada looked forward to China's answer s on the leading role of state-owned enterprises 
in advancing industrial policies.  G/SCM/130 
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  16. The delegate of China  took note of the comments made by previous speakers and of the 
written questions raised by the delegations of th e United States and the European Communities.  
China had elaborated its positions  on many of these questions as reflected in the minutes of the 
Committee meetings at which previous reviews had b een held.  In addition, the delegate of China 
wished to make the following points in the transitiona l review by the Committee this year in response 
to questions put forward by other delegations and to comments made by previous speakers. 
17. On the issue of transparency, the delegate of China informed the Committee that a draft of 
China's second subsidy notification was ready fo r examination and that work to submit the 
notification was at the final stage.  This second no tification was to cover the period 2005-2008.  Upon 
the submission of this second notification, the clarity of the measures of the Chinese central 
government which might constitute subsidies as de fined in the SCM Agreement would be greatly 
enhanced.  China would make all efforts in the coming few months to finalize the second notification 
and was particularly pleased that its transparency obligation under the SCM Agreement for this four 
year period could finally be fulfilled.  The delega te noted that preparation of the second notification 
had been more complex than anticipated due to changes in recent years resulting from major reforms 
in China's income tax and value-added tax regimes. 
18. China would continue to work towards incorpora ting subsidies at the local level into future 
notifications.  The delegate of China at this tim e had difficulties in providing a specific time schedule 
for the submission of a notification that containe d sub-central measures, but noted that China's 
progress in submitting the first and second notifica tions had enhanced its confidence and would 
enable China to concentrate better its future  efforts in fulfilling this difficult task.  
19. With respect to mechanisms to review subs idy programmes for consistency with the SCM 
Agreement, the delegate of China informed the Co mmittee that the Central Government of China or 
the State Council had inter-ministerial consultatio n procedures to ensure WTO consistency when new 
policies and measures were formulated, including tho se that may be related to the SCM Agreement. 
Other information on such mechanisms could be found in paragraph 74 of document G/SCM/M/66,  
which recorded the transitional review undertak en last year in the Committee.  The Chinese 
delegation had, in that review, provided detailed replies on this qu estion.  The delegate further 
informed the Committee that regulations, rules and other administrative measures of both the central 
and local governments were reviewed at intervals and that those abolished or no longer applicable 
would be published collectively.  
20. With respect to industry policy administrati on, the delegate of China first provided 
explanations on China's national five-year plans.  Th e national five-year plans were blueprints of the 
overall social and economic development of the nation to be achieved in every five years period.  The 
plans were approved by the National People's Congr ess and implemented by the State Council or the 
Central Government.  Likewise, local five-year plans of an administrative region at or above county 
level were approved by the corresponding local people's congresses.  The national and local five-year plans were not necessarily inter-related as the goals and tasks set could differ in view of the different 
situations and development levels of different localities.  However, the general guiding principles of 
the plans would usually be consiste nt.  Achievement of the goals and tasks set in these five-year plans 
relied primarily on the fundamental role of the market and the five-year plans contained no specific 
subsidy programmes.  In response to a question ask ed by the United States, the delegate of China 
indicated that the provincial five-year plans were available on the official websites of the relevant 
provincial governments.  
21. The delegate of China explained that i ndustrial policies were general guidelines for 
development of certain industries in order to achie ve development goals envisaged in the five-year 
plans.  Industrial policies aimed at promoting stru ctural adjustment and industrial upgrading so that 
the sectors concerned could develop in a steady, heal thy and sustainable manner.  Industrial policies G/SCM/130 
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  were usually formulated at the national level, and shared common features, notably the high priority 
given to resources and energy conservation, to th e reduction of emissions, and the importance placed 
on the strengthening of China's capacity for independent  innovation.  The delega te of China noted that 
local governments could draft their own industrial deve lopment plans, but that these plans had to be in 
line with the industrial policies at the national le vel.  As general guidelines, industrial policies 
contained no specific subsidy programmes.  Industrial policies were implemented through 
administrative measures, for example access conditions  for investment in various sectors.  Subsidy 
programmes were found in administrative measures a nd might or might not be related to industrial 
policies.  General policy statements such as the indus trial policies were not to be mistaken for subsidy 
programmes; for a subsidy programme to exist, th ere would have to be an administrative measure 
specifying at least the financial contribution and its utilization.  
22. The delegate of China then turn ed to the question of state-ow ned enterprises.  In China's 
view, the observance of industrial policies by state-owned enterprises did not preclude such 
enterprises from operating on a commercial basis.  China also saw no inconsistency between the Law 
of the People's Republic of China on the State-Owned Assets of Enterprises (adopted on 
28 October 2008) and its WTO obligations.  Article 6 of the Law clearly stated that the State as an 
investor or shareholder would observe the princi ples of separation of government from enterprise, 
separation of its public administration functions fro m those of an investor or shareholder and non-
interference in the independent mana gement and operation of enterprises.  As to Article 7, it reflected 
the areas that the State as an invest or was interested in and there was no indication in that provision 
that the State would not behave according to market economy principles.  
23. Regarding land administration, the delegate of China indicated that in China's view, it was 
only natural that projects not in accordance with in dustrial policies - in particular projects wasting 
energy and resources, polluting the environment, or  expanding production capacity already in excess - 
were not supplied with land.  The delegate of Ch ina did not see a contradiction between this and the 
supply of land on commercial conditions to projects cons istent with industrial policy.  The delegate of 
China noted that the provision of free or underpri ced land used to be a kind of subsidy offered by 
local authorities to investors, largely foreign inv estors, in the early years of China's opening up, but 
indicated that this had no longer been the case.  China had made it clear in the last review that a basic 
principle adhered to by China in its economic refo rms was to introduce market forces and have them 
play a fundamental role in the allocation of r esources, including land.  The delegate added that 
presently, land for industrial purposes in China c ould only be provided through public bidding 
procedures.  
24. In response to questions regarding civil aircraft, the delegate of China clarified that China had 
not formulated an industrial policy on the developm ent of the aerospace industry.  That said, "large 
aircraft" was one of the "16 national science and technology major projects", the implementation of 
which was the responsibility of the Ministry of Science and Technology.  These 16 projects would have a budget of around RMB 32.8 billion in 2009 and around RMB 30 billion in 2010.  The 
relevance of this to the SCM Agreement remained to  be clarified.  At this stage, China did not 
consider it appropriate for the Committee to address the issue of a Member's funding of science and 
technology development.  As to the relations hip between banks and the Commercial Aircraft 
Corporation of China Ltd, to his knowledge, onl y the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd 
had signed a letter of intention with the company.  Whether the Bank would provide loans to the 
company in the end and, if so, on what terms a nd conditions, remained to be determined by the Bank 
based on its judgement of benefits and risks of th e project.  The delegate of China also noted the 
reference made by the delegation of the United St ates to a subsidy programme of the Civil Aviation 
Administration of China (CAAC) concerning the deve lopment of regional aviation.  This programme, 
which concerned trade in services, was initiated l ast year for general services purposes, and was 
provided to airlines for their launch and operation of regional flights.  It was unrelated to the large 
aircraft project.  G/SCM/130 
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  25. With respect to the textiles sector and recen t industry support plan, the delegate of China 
indicated that after the outbreak of the financia l crisis, China had put forward (in February and 
March 2009) adjustment and reinvigoration plans for 10 industries, including textiles.  The ten plans 
were general policy guidelines and were implemented through specific implementing measures, 
including for example, raising export VAT rebate rate, lowering the purchase tax on certain vehicles, 
expansion of existing trade promotion schemes, and various projects to promote consumption.  China 
had notified these implementing measures to the WT O TPRB's financial crisis monitoring mechanism 
as they were staged.  The delegate of China also noted that some local governments drafted their own 
plans for certain sectors.  In the course of tack ling the financial crisis, China attached great 
importance to the consistency of the measures wi th its WTO obligations.  Issues raised in the 
questions addressed to China, such as those on alle ged prohibited subsidies, were basically general 
policy statements as found in relevant plans.  Th ey involved no confirmed subsidy programmes with 
specified amount of financial c ontribution and its utilization.   
26. Lastly, turning to fuel prices, the delegate of China indicated that the price of crude oil in 
China was interconnected with the international ma rket and subject to negotiations between buyers 
and sellers.  On processed oil, the price was now a government guidance price, where the benchmark 
price was set by the government based on prices on the international market, plus consideration of 
other relevant factors such as taxes, production costs, pr ofits at an appropriate le vel etc.  Retailers also 
had a margin within which they could decide  retailing prices.  Steps had been taken in 
December 2008 to reform the mechanism to set th e benchmark price.  After the reform, the 
benchmark price would be adjusted more frequently provided that prices in the international market 
went beyond a certain level within a certain time period. 
27. The delegate of the United States  thanked the delegate of China for the answers provided, 
some of which were particularly helpful.  While expressing satisfaction at China's indication that its 
notification would soon be submitted to the Committ ee, the delegate of the United States considered 
that it was particularly disturbing that China would not be notifying subsidies at the sub-central level 
in that notification, given that the United Stat es had raised the issue in  the Committee for several 
years and that notifying these is critically important .  The United States had had significant experience 
examining Chinese sub-central measures and had found numerous measures that appeared to be 
inconsistent with China's obliga tions under the SCM Agreement.  For these reasons, the delegate of 
the United States noted that it was disturbing that the central government was still unable to provide a 
timetable on when sub-central subsidy measures would be notified. 
28. With regard to the five-year plans, the dele gate of United States noted with interest the 
indication by the delegate of China that all five-year  plans at all levels of government were available 
on the internet.  The United States had been unable to find most provincial-level five-year plans, not 
to mention plans at more local levels and expressed  interest in obtaining the websites from China.  
29. The United States had, in its transitional re view mechanism submission and in its earlier 
intervention, cited to very specific plans that were  currently in place and that clearly appeared to 
provide subsidies.  While the United States accepted China's point that the five year plans were not 
exclusively about subsidy programmes, it noted that it was also clear to the Unit ed States that the five-
year plans - especially at the sub-central levels – did in fact provide subsidies that needed to be 
notified to the SCM Committee. 
30. Finally, the delegate of the United States refe rred to China's comments with respect to 
government science and technology programmes not  being an appropriate subject for the SCM 
Committee's consideration.  The question posed by the United States concerned the aerospace industry.  The delegate of the United States noted that there was a current dispute pending in the 
dispute settlement system that in a very significan t measure related to science and technology funding. G/SCM/130 
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  In the view of the United States, science and t echnology funding programmes constituted potential 
actionable subsidies and hence were an appropriate subject for the SCM Committee. 
31. The delegate of the European Commission  expressed appreciation at China's efforts to include 
subsidies at sub-central level in the next notificati ons but regretted that China would not do so in its 
coming subsidy notification.  The European Communities was especially concerned about subsidies in 
the steel sector and requested China to do its utmost  to include subsidies to this sector at the sub- 
federal level in the next notification.  The inclusio n of subsidies at sub-fede ral level being part of 
China's obligations under the WTO Agreement, it w as unacceptable that China had not been able to 
do so in its notifications, eight years after its acce ssion to the WTO.  The delegate of the European 
Communities also noted that the delegate of Chin a had not commented on the European Communities' 
last question concerning the practice (identified as part of EC trade defence investigations) which 
restricted the export of certain raw materials and which could confer a subsidy on the downstream 
product.  The delegate of the European Comm unities asked China to indicate whether it would 
respond to this question orally or in writing. 
32. The delegate of China  took note of the follow-up comments made by previous speakers with 
respect to China's subsidy notifications and in partic ular their concerns with the lack of information 
provided concerning programmes at the sub-central le vel.  He referred to China's positions in the 
reviews of previous years and noted that China had already explained the tremendous capacity 
constraints it had in this regard.  China was aware of the requirement to include sub-central subsidies 
in its notifications and its future efforts would c oncentrate on that aspect.  Responding to comments of 
other Members – in particular the United States – concerning the existence of large amounts of 
subsidy programmes at sub-central le vel, the delegate of China clarified that it was natural that China 
and its governments at different leve ls would have in place plans of di fferent levels, all stating guiding 
principles.  That said, in order to confirm the existence of a subsidy programme as defined by the 
SCM Agreement and also for the purpose of prepar ing China's subsidy notifications, very specific 
provisions and measures specifying th e financial contribution and its u tilization were required.  Five 
years plans or industrial policies reflecting genera l policy statements should not be seen as subsidy 
programmes.  With respect to the provincial websit es on which the plans could be found, the delegate 
of China once again indicated that these websites were easily accessible and referred other Members 
to the official websites of the relevant provincial governments.  
33. The delegate of China also wished to clarify hi s earlier statement with respect to the aircraft 
sector: whether funding  with respect to science and tec hnology development should be regarded as 
relevant to the SCM Agreement and if so, to what ex tent it was relevant, remained to be clarified.  
Given this, China was of the view that this was not an appropriate subject for the SCM Committee to consider.  China had an interest in the dispute me ntioned by the United States in its intervention, and 
would follow its outcome.  With respect to th e question posed by the European Communities 
concerning export administration measures, China did not have a very clear position at this stage.  In China's view, export administration measures were not an issue directly relevant to the SCM 
Agreement.  Whether such measures might constitute  subsidies to downstream industries was an issue 
to be further studied. 
34. The delegate of the United States
 reiterated that the US delegation had not been able to 
identify all the relevant websites of provincial govern ments containing their five year plans even after 
conducting Chinese language research.  The United Stat es had been able to identify the websites for 
some of the relevant provinces, but not for most of them.  In addition, locating plans below the 
provincial levels was extremely difficult.  The de legate of the United States reminded China of its 
obligation, under its Protocol of Accession to provid e these plans.  The delegate of the United States 
suggested that the United States a nd China work informally throu gh their Geneva representatives to 
obtain the website information.   G/SCM/130 
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  35. The delegate of the European Communities  thanked China for its comments. 
36. The delegate of China  considered that there was no need for future cooperation concerning 
the websites.  The 32 provincial level regions in  China's mainland all had their own official 
government websites, which were not difficult to lo cate.  No further information was provided with 
respect to plans below the provincial level. 
37. With regard to the Committee's report on the transitional review, the Chairman  noted that there 
were no guidelines for the report in the Protocol.  Following the review at the previous year's fall 
meeting, the Chairperson, acting on his own responsi bility, had prepared a brief, factual report, with 
references to the documents concerned, and attaching the portion of the minutes of the meeting which 
related to the transition review.  He proposed that the Committee agree to follo w the same procedure.  
It was so decided . 
 
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