. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/C/W/606 
10 November 2008 
 
 (08-5419) 
Council for Trade in Goods Original:   English 
  
 
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM IN CONNECTION WITH PARAGRAPH 18 
OF THE PROTOCOL ON THE ACCESSION 
OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC CHINA 
 
Questions and Comments from JAPAN to CHINA
 
 
  The following communication, dated 6 No vember 2008, has been received from the 
delegation of Japan.  
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1. Export Licensing Measures 
1. Japan remains concerned about China's export licensing (E/L) measures on certain materials 
such as fluorite, coal, coke and non-ferrous metals  (rare-earths, tungsten, antimony, tin, silver, 
bauxite, indium, molybdenum and zinc ).  Japan understands that, for mo st of the materials mentioned 
above, China's total amount of exports  limited by the issuances of th e E/L has been declining over the 
past few years. 
2. China explained, in the Trade Policy Review on 21-23 May 2008, responding to Japan's 
question, that "China adopts necessary export rest riction on resource-intens ive products consistent 
with Article 20 'General Exception' of GATT 1994, that is to say, China implements stringent 
restriction on domestic production and consumption of resource-intensive products while the export 
restriction is in place."  Actual data regard ing domestic production and consumption on the above-
mentioned products, however, have not been provided by China. 
(a) Please explain how China justifies its use of export licensing measures on each 
material under Article 20 of the Genera l Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. 
(b) Please provide the data on domestic produc tion and consumption of each material on 
which export licensing measure is applied. 
(c) Does China have any plans to eliminate or review the export licensing measures? 
Please explain? 
2. Export Taxes 
3. Japan remains concerned about China's impositi on of export taxes on certain raw materials 
and products, including agricultural products (wh eat, wheat flour, buckwheat, maize and rice), 
chemical fertilizers and their raw materials, non -ferrous metals, coal a nd coke. The imposition of 
export taxes on some of these have been raised several times.  G/C/W/606 
Page 2  
 
  4. As for the recently raised/introduced export duties on chemical fertilizers and their raw 
materials, Japan understands that China has levi ed a 100% export taxes on 32 items effective from 
29 April to the end of this year, and six other pr oducts including phosphate rock have also been 
subject to a 100% export tax since May this year.  In addition, on 29 August 2008, China officially 
announced an increase of export taxes on nitrogen fertilizers and ammonia to 150% effective from 
30 September to 31 December 2008 and also levied export taxes on steam coal and anthracite since 
August this year.  
5. Furthermore, Japan is also concerned about the introduction of export taxes of agricultural 
products in terms of food security as one of the largest food importing countries.  
6. In Section 11.3 of Part I of its Protocol on the Accession, China committed to eliminate all 
taxes and charges applied to exports unless specifica lly provided for in Annex 6 of this Protocol.  
Most of the above products, however, are not listed in Annex 6 of the Protocol, and the duties for 
other few items such as phosphate rock are above the export duty rate China committed in Annex 6. 
(a) Please explain the purposes of China's imposition of export taxes on agricultural 
products, chemical fertilizers and their ra w materials, non-ferrous metals, coal and 
coke respectively.  
(b) Please explain how China justifies its imposition of export tax in light of the 
commitments that China made in Section 11.3 of Part I of its Protocol of Accession. 
(c) Does China have any plans to re view the export taxes measures? 
3. Export Prohibition 
7. Japan remains concerned about China's export prohibition on natural sand.  China explains 
that the purposes of the prohibition are to conserve  natural resources, and that the production and 
consumption of natural sand is restricted  in parallel with the export prohibition. 
(a) Please explain how China justifies its export prohibition on natural sand under 
Article XI of the General Agre ement on Tariffs and Trade 1994. 
(b) Please explain in detail China's restrictive measures on domestic production and 
consumption of natural sand. 
(c) Please provide the data on the latest tren d in domestic production and consumption of 
natural sand. 
(d) Does China have any plans to eliminate or review the export prohibition on natural 
sand? 
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