WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/C/W/608 
17 November 2008 
 (08-5583) 
Council for Trade in Goods Original:   English 
 
 
 
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW UNDER ARTICLE 18 OF THE PROTOCOL OF ACCESSION 
OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA 
 
Information Required in Annex 1A  
 
  The following communication, dated 17 November 2008, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of the People's Republic of China.  
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II. ECONOMIC POLICIES 
 2.1  Non-Discrimination  (a) The repeal and cessation of all WTO inconsiste nt laws, regulations and other measures 
on national treatment. 
 
There have been no changes since last submission.  
 
(b) The repeal or modification to provide full GA TT national treatment in respect of laws, 
regulations and other measures applying to in ternal sale, offering for sale, purchase, 
transportation, distribution or use of: a fter sale service, pharmaceutical products, 
cigarettes, spirits, chemicals and boil er and pressure vessels (for pharmaceutical 
products, chemicals and spirits there is a reser vation of the right to use a transitional 
period of one year from the date of accessi on in order to amend or repeal relevant 
legislation) 
 
There have been no changes since last submission. 
 
IV. POLICIES AFFECTING TRADE IN GOODS 
 
4.5  Export Restrictions 
 (a)   Any restrictions on exports through non-au tomatic licensing or other means justified by 
specific product under the WTO Agreement or the Protocol.  
  China maintains export administration of a small number of products for the purposes of 
protecting public interest, conserving the exhaustib le natural resources, or undertaking obligations 
under international treaties, etc. This is in  conformity to Article XX of GATT 1994. 
  The information on export administration that  China provides here is for transparency 
purpose only and shall not be deemed as to mean that the measures covered necessarily fall into the 
scope of export restriction as defined in the WTO.  
 G/C/W/608 
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  Non-tariff measures  
 
In 2008, products subject to export license a nd export quota license include: live cattle, live 
swine, fowls, beef, pork, chicken meat, wheat a nd its powder, maize and its powder, rice and its 
powder, cotton, liquorice and its products, Chinese iris and its products, s ilk, bauxite, light (dead) 
burned magnesium, talc lump (powder), fluorspar lu mp (powder), phosphorous ore, rare earth, coal, 
coke, crude oil, processed oil, paraffin wax, t ungsten and its products, i ndium and its products, 
molybdenum and its product, silicon carbide, sawn tim ber, silver, platinum (through processing trade 
only), zinc and zinc alloy, tin and tin alloy, antim ony and its products, motorc ycle, motorcycle engine 
and frame, automobiles (including SKD) and chassis, substances depleting ozon osphere, part of metal 
products, natural sand (incl. standa rd sand) and citric acid. Some of the products listed above obtain 
export licenses upon presenting of export contract.  
 China also maintains export prohibition on the following products: horn-cores and tiger 
bones, bezoars, musk, certain chem icals used for narcotics production,  certain substances depleting 
ozonosphere, wood, wood charcoal, and platinum.  
 
Tariff measures 
 
In light of Annex 6 of the Protocol on the Accession of the People’s Republic of China, 334 
HS 8-digit tariff headings are subject to interim export tariff in 2008.  
 
China will submit to the WTO a new and full notif ication of quantitative restrictions for the 
year 2008, which will reflect details of these e xport non-tariff measures, including quota volume (if 
applicable).   4.9  State Trading Entities  (a) Progressive abolishment of state trading in respect of silk measures, increasing and 
extending trading rights, granting the right to trade to all individuals no later than 1 January 2005 
 
There have been no changes since last submission.  
 
(b)   Access to supplies of raw materials in th e textiles sector at conditions no less favourable 
than for domestic users, and not adversely aff ected access to supplies of raw materials as 
enjoyed under existing arrangements  
 
 Access to supplies of raw materials in the textile  sector for foreign user s remains at the same 
conditions as for domestic users, and have not been adversely affected in this area.  
 
(c)   Progressive increases in access by non state tr ading entities to trade in fertilizer and oil 
and the filling of quantities available for import by non state trading entities  
 
For the purpose of expanding the market access for non-state trading enterprises of processed 
oil, crude oil and chemical fertilizer, MOFCOM further issued Announcement No. 85 of 2007 on 
24 October 2007, publishing the 9
th batches of non-state trading enterprises for importation of crude 
oil and processed oil.  Compared with the situa tion at the time of China’s accession, the number of 
non-state trading enterprises for importation of crud e oil, processed oil and chemical fertilizers has 
increased substantially.    From 2003 to 2008, the volume permitted for importation of crude oil non-state trading 
enterprise was respectively 9,520,000 tons, 10, 950,000 tons, 12,600,000 tons, 14,500,000 tons,  G/C/W/608 
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  16,680,000 tons and 19,15 0,000 tons. The volume permitted for importation of processed oil non-state 
trading enterprise was respectively 5,300,000 tons , 6,100,000 tons, 7,000,000 tons, 8,050,000 tons, 
9,260,000 tons and 10,650,000 tons. 
 
2006 was the end of the committed increase in TRQ quantity for chemical fertilizer import by 
non state-trading enterprises. Therefore, quantity of TRQ for chemical fertilizer import by non state-
trading enterprises in 2006 and 2008 is the same.    From 2003 to 2008, the volume permitted for importation of crude oil, processed oil and chemical fertilizers by non-state trading enterprises were fully allocated. However, as holders of the 
volume permitted for importation by non-state trading enterprises may also consign state trading 
enterprises to import, it is technically not feasible at this stage for the Cu stoms authorities to have 
statistics of the imports of the non-state trading enterprises and therefore the import performance by 
non-state trading enterprises is difficult to be confirmed with Customs statistics.  4.10  Government Procurement  (a) Laws, regulations and procedures 
 
 Regarding government procurement, Chin a initiated negotiation on accession into the 
Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) , submitting its application for accession into the GPA 
and Appendix I offers to the WTO on 28 December 2007. Currently the major legislation regarding 
government procurement is the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Government Procurement  
which took effect on 1 January 2003. There have been no changes since the last review.   
(b) Procurement in a transparent manner and application   
 
 To ensure the transparency in government proc urement, information on laws, regulations and 
administrative measures relating to government proc urement, procurement opportunities, results of 
the contract award and advance examination on qualif ication of suppliers etc should all be published 
in the  designated  government procurement website of China ( www.ccpg.gov.cn)
, China Financial and 
Economic News  and China Government Procurement magazine. All the procurement projects open to 
foreign suppliers are required to be implemented through tendering to  provide foreign suppliers with 
equal opportunities. At present, the process of (if an y) drafting relevant regulations and administrative 
measures, and soliciting public opinions and comments on the drafts is ongoing.  
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