. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/SG/W/217 
21 October 2011 
 (11-5273) 
Committee on Safeguards Original:   English 
  
 
INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED BY CHINA IN THE CONTEXT 
OF THE TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM 
 
Communication from China 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 20 October 2011, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of China.  
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IV.
  P OLICIES AFFECTING TRADE IN GOODS  
 6.  Safeguards  
 (a)  Implementation of China's Legislation on Safeguards 
 
China's legislation on safeguards  
 Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China  and Regulations of the People's 
Republic of China on Safeguard are the law and administrative regulation with regard to safeguard 
measures in China.  Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China  currently in force was 
revised at the 8th Session of the Standing Co mmittee of the 10th National People's Congress on 
6 April 2004 and entered into force from 1 July 2004 (Decree No. 15 of the President of the People's Republic of China in 2004, G/SG/N/1/CHN/2/Suppl.4).  Regulations of the People's Republic of 
China on Safeguard  currently in force was promulgated by the State Council on 31 March 2004 and 
came into force as of 1 June 2004 (State C ouncil Decree No. 403, G/SG/N/1/CHN/2/Suppl.3). 
 
 Based on that, relevant authorities in the Ch inese Government also formulated a series of 
departmental rules concerning saf eguards measures, among which 5 ar e currently in force, namely 
Provisional Rules on Initiation of Safeguard Investigation  (former Ministry of Foreign Trade and 
Economic Cooperation MOFTEC Decree No. 9 of 2002,  G/SG/N/1/CHN/1, 
G/SG/N/1/CHN/2/Suppl.1) and Provisional Rules on Heari ng in Safeguard Investigation  (MOFTEC 
Decree No. 11 of 2002, G/SG/N/1/CHN/1, G/SG/N /1/CHN/2/Suppl.1) which became effective on 
13 March 2002, Interim Rules on the Procedures for Adjusting the Range of Products under 
Safeguards (MOFTEC Decree No. 38 of 2002) en tering into force on 13 January 2003, Rules on 
Public Hearings with regard to In vestigations of Injury to Industry (the former State Economic and 
Trade Commission SETC Decree No. 44 issued in 2002,  G/SG/N/1/CHN/2/Suppl.2) effective on 
15 January 2003, and Rules on Investigations of Industry Injury for Safeguard Measures  (Ministry of 
Commerce, MOFCOM Decree No. 5 of 2003) wh ich was promulgated on 17 October 2003 and 
became effective 30 days later.  
 G/SG/W/217 
Page 2  
 
   Implementation of China's legislation on safeguards 
 
No new safeguard investigation has been initiate d by China since the last transitional review 
in 2009.  So far, China has initiated only one safeguard  investigation in total.  Upon application by the 
domestic steel industry, MOFTEC decided on 20 May 20 02 to initiate a safeguard investigation into 
certain imported steel products  (MOFTEC Announcement No. 29 of  2002).  On 21 May 2002, it 
decided to apply provisional safeguard measure on 17 categories of imported steel products, effective 
as of 24
 May 2002 (MOFTEC Announcement No. 30 of  2002).  On 19 November 2002, MOFTEC 
issued the decision to apply safeguard measure with a duration of three years (including the 
implementation period of the provisional safeguard  measure) on imported non alloy hot rolled sheets 
and coils, non alloy cold rolled sheets (strips), organic coated sheets, non grain-oriented electrical 
sheets and cold rolled stainless steel sheets (strip s) (MOFTEC Announcement No. 48 of 2002).  On 
26 December 2003, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM)  decided to terminate the definitive safeguard 
measure (MOFCOM Announcement No. 76 of 2003). 
 
China has notified details of the above-men tioned safeguard measure to the Committee on 
Safeguards in G/SG/N/10/CHN/1, G/SG/N /8/CHN/1 and G/SG/N/10/CHN/1/Suppl.1. 
  
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