WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/C/W/539 
9 November 2005 
 (05-5250) 
Council for Trade in Goods Original:   English 
  
 
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM PURSUANT TO 
SECTION 18 OF THE PROTOCOL ON THE ACCESSION 
OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLI C OF CHINA (“CHINA”) 
 
Information Required in Annex 1A
 
 
 The following communication, dated 8 No vember 2005, has been received from 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. 
 
During the 4 years after accession, China has been engaged in enacting, amending and 
abolishing trade-related laws, re gulations and administrative measures, most of which are now in 
consistency with WTO national treatment, in cluding those discussed in China’s accession 
negotiations. The national treatment principle is now well observed in the legislation of China relating 
to trade  (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) 
 
 The repeal or modification in respect of the administrative measures relating to after sale service, pharmaceutical products, cigarettes, chemical s, boiler and pressure vessels products, in which 
full WTO national treatment was embodied, were submitted to Council for Trade in Goods in the 
Annex 1A information of the past two years. No changes were made in 2005. 
 G/C/W/539 
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 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, avoiding shortage in domestic supply, conserving the exhaustible natural 
resources, or undertaking obligations under interna tional treaties or intergovernmental agreements. 
This is in conformity to Article XX of GATT1994. 
  In 2005, commodities subject to export admi nistration include: live cattle (to Hong Kong, 
China and Macau, China), live swine (to Hong K ong, China and Macau, China), fowls (to Hong 
Kong, China and Macau, China), beef, pork, chicken meat, tea, wheat, maize, rice, cotton, liquorice 
and its products, Chinese iris and its products, ba uxite, light (dead) burned magnesium, talc lump 
(powder), fluorspar lump (powder), rare earth, co al, coke, crude oil, processed oil, paraffin wax, 
tungsten and its products , silicon carbide, sawn tim ber, silver, platinum (through processing trade 
only), zinc and zinc alloy, tin and tin alloy,  antimony and antimony products, motorcycle and 
motorcycle engine, electric fan, bicycle, comput ers, substances deple ting ozonosphere, chemicals 
under supervision and control, chemicals used for narcotics production. Many of the products listed 
above obtain export licensing automatically. Besides,  China also maintains export prohibition on the 
following products: horn-cores and tiger bones, bezoar s, musk, certain chemicals used for narcotics 
production, certain substances depl eting ozonosphere, wood, wood char coal, and platinum. China will 
in a couple of days time submit to WTO a full notif ication of quantitative restrictions of the year 
2005, which will reflect detailed in formation on these export administrative 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 
 
 Introductions on progressive abolishment of state trading in respect of silk measures, increasing and extending trading rights were s ubmitted to Council for Trade in Goods in the 
Annex 1A information of the past two years. No changes were made in 2005. 
 
(b) access to supplies of raw materials in the te xtiles sector at conditions no less favorable 
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 tex tiles sector for foreign users 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  
  
 After WTO accession, China implemented a registration system for non-state trading 
enterprises for importation of crude oil, processed oil and chemical fertiliz ers for the purpose of 
expanding the market access for non-state trading enterprises of these products. On 1 August 2002, 
the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Econ omic Cooperation (MOFTEC) in its Announcement 
No. 19 of 2002 published the cond itions, materials needed and pro cedures for application for the  G/C/W/539 
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 qualification registration of non-state trading enterprises for importation of crude oil, processed oil 
and chemical fertilizers. After that, in its Announcement No. 50 and No . 51 of 2002, MOFTEC 
published 2 batches of lists of non-state trading en terprise registered for importation of crude oil, 
processed oil and chemical fertilizers. On 13 August 2004, 16 and 17  March 2005, in its 
Announcement No. 46 of 2004, No. 12 and No. 13 of 2005, MOFCOM published the 3rd, 4th and 5th 
batch of the list of non-state trading enterprises regi stered for importation of crude oil and processed 
oil.  On 26 August 2004, MOFCOM further issu ed Announcement No. 52 of 2004, publishing another 
5 non-state trading enterprises for importation of chem ical fertilizers. Compared with the situation at 
the time of China’s accession, the number of non-stat e trading enterprises for importation of crude oil, 
processed oil and chemical fertilizers has increased substantially.  
 
 According to the former State Economic  and Trade Commission (SETC) Announcement 
No.50 and No.51 of 2002, the volume permitted fo r importation of crude oil in 2003 by non-state 
trading enterprise was 9,520,000 tons, and the volum e permitted for importation of processed oil in 
2003 by non-state trading enterprise was 5,300,000 t ons. According to SETC Announcement No.73 of 
2002, the 2003 TRQ volume for importation of chemi cal fertilizers by non-state trading enterprise 
were as follows: urea 180,000 tons, DAP 1, 190,000 tons and NPK 600,000 tons.  
 According to MOFCOM Announcement No.38 and No.39 of 2003, the volume permitted for 
importation of crude oil in 2004 by non-state trad ing enterprise was 10,950,000 tons, and the volume 
permitted for importation of processed oil in 2004 by  non-state trading enterprise was 6,100,000 tons. 
According to MOFCOM Announcement No.55 of 2003, the 2004 TRQ volume for importation of 
chemical fertilizers by non-state trading ente rprise were as follows:  urea 230,000 tons, 
DAP 1,560,000 tons and NPK 780,000 tons. 
 According to MOFCOM Announcement No.58 of  2004, the volume permitted for importation 
of crude oil in 2005 by non-state trading enterp rise is 12,600,000 tons, a nd the volume permitted for 
importation of processed oil in 2005 by non-state trad ing enterprise is 7,000,000 tons. According to 
MOFCOM Announcement No.62 of 2004, the 2005 TRQ volume for importation of chemical 
fertilizers by non-state trading enterprise are as follows: urea 280,000 tons, DAP 1,970,000 tons and 
NPK 990,000 tons.  
 
According to MOFCOM Announcement No.62 of  2005, the volume permitted for importation 
of crude oil in 2006 by non-state trading enterp rise is 14,500,000 tons, a nd the volume permitted for 
importation of processed oil in 2006 by non-state trad ing enterprise is 8,050,000 tons. According to 
MOFCOM Announcement No.67 of 2005, the 2006 TRQ volume for importation of chemical 
fertilizers by non-state trading enterprise are as follows: urea 330,000 tons, DAP 2,410,000 tons and 
NPK 1,210,000 tons. Therefore the volume availabl e for importation of these products by non-state 
trading enterprises has been on constant increase.    From 2003 to 2005, 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 
 
 Law of the People’s Republic of China on Government Procurement  took effect on 1 January 
2003, and the drafting of implementing re gulations of the law is under way. G/C/W/539 
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(b) Procurement in a transparent manner and application   
  
 To ensure the transparency in government procurement, the competent authorities of the 
Chinese Government has taken a series of measures as follows: 
 
 1. The scope of information on government  procurement to be published is expanded. 
At present, information on laws, regulations  and administrative measures relating to 
government procurement, procurement opportunities, results of the contract award and advance examination on qualification of suppliers etc. should be published in the government 
procurement website of China ( www.ccpg.gov.cn)
, China Financial and Economic News  and 
China Government Procurement magazine, which are designated by the Chinese government. 
  2. All the procurement projects open to fore ign suppliers are require d to be implemented 
through tendering to provide foreign suppliers with equal opportunities. 
 
 3. In the process of drafting regulations and administrative measures, public opinions 
and comments on the drafts are required to be solicited. 
 
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