WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/C/W/474
24 November 2003
(03-6237)
Council for Trade in Goods Original:  English
TRANSITIONAL REVIEW MECHANISM UNDER SECTION 18 OF
THE PROTOCOL ON THE ACCESSION OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Information required by Annex 1A
Communication from China
The following communication, dated 21 November 2003, has been received from the
delegation of China.
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2. Economic Policies
2.1 Non-Discrimination(a) the repeal and cessation of all WTO inconsistent laws, regulations and other measures
on national treatment.
To meet the needs of the WTO accession, the Chinese Government has launched a massive
program regarding the enactment, amendment and repeal of laws, regulations, and administrative
rules, policies and measures which are relevant to or affecting trade in goods, trade in services, trade-related intellectual property rights and the assurance of transparency and uniform application of trade
regime. Related work has been carried out ever since then. In this course, laws, regulations and
measures containing WTO inconsistent provisions on national treatment have been modified or
repealed. In 2003, The Administrative Licensing Law of the People’s Republic of China and the
Regulations on Certification and Accreditation have been promulgatedand the amendment ofForeign Trade Law, the Regulations on Import and Export tariff and the Regulations on Rules of
Origin for Import and Export Goods are entering into a cruising phase.
(b) the repeal or modification to provide full GATT national treatment in respect of laws,
regulations and other measures applying to internal sale, offering for sale, purchase,transportation, distribution or use of: after sale service, pharmaceutical products,
cigarettes, spirits, chemicals and boiler and pressure vessels (for pharmaceutical
products, chemicals and spirits there is a res ervation of the right to use a transitional
period of one year from the date of accession in order to amend or repeal relevant
legislation)
1
With regard to cigarettes, Decree No.2 of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has
been amended, and Article 25 of Measures on the Administration of License for the Sale of Tobacco
has been adjusted by Circular of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration on Relevant Issues
                                                     
1 Information regarding after sale service, pharmace utical products, boiler and pressure vessel has been
provided in last TRM.G/C/W/474
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Concerning the Application of Measures for the Administration of License for Sale of Tobacco
(No.435-2003), to the effect that no license for the sale of specific tobaccos are required for
individuals/entities engaging in foreign cigarettes retail; businesses and individuals acquiring the
license pursuant to the provisions may go into retail business of domestic and foreign cigarettes since
1 January 2004.
In respect of wine, the amendment of the Methods for the Administration of Domestic Market
for Imported Wines (Methods) is under way, mainly focusing on the requirements on customs
inspection, establishment and management of distribution enterprises and identification of competent
authorities in various aspects, etc., and in this course, relevant laws and regulations as well as the
principle of national treatment will be taken into account. The amended requirements on the
establishment and operation of enterprises distributing imported wines will be more explicit, andnational treatment will be realized in terms of standards and licensing procedures for the distribution
and sale of different kinds of wines. The amended Methods is expected to be published in the first half
of the next year.
As for chemicals, China has been implemen ting its accession commitments on environmental
administration on chemicals. On November 1, 2002, the registration procedures for the initial imports
of chemical products has been cancelled by the State Council through the “Decision on the
Cancellation of the First Group of Projects Subject to Administrative Approval”. Currently, the State
Environmental Protection Administration is revising the original “Provisions on the Environmental
Administration of Initial Imports of Chemical Products and Import and Export of Toxic ChemicalProducts”, and “Methods for the Environmental Administration of New Chemical Products” has been
promulgated, with the national treatment principle and international practices fully taken into account
in environmental administration of chemical products. To ensure the transparency of legislation, the
draft Methods had been published by the State Environmental Protection Administration and
comments from Chinese and foreign chemical producers had been carefully considered.
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.
(1) On 1 January 2003, China eliminated export quotas on garlic (exported to Korea) and sugar.
In order to supervise the export of garlic, the global export license is maintained. To date, the
following commodities are subject to export administration measures: live cattle, live swine, live
chicken, beef, pork, chicken meat, garlic, tea, wheat, maize, rice, licorice and its products, Chinese irisand its products, bauxite, light (dead) burned magnesium, talc lump(powder), fluorspar lump
(powder), rare earth, zinc ores, tin ores, tungsten ore, antimony ores, coal, coke, crude oil, processed
oil products, paraffin wax, antimony oxide, a nd artificial corundum, ammonium paratungstate,
tungsten trioxide and blue tungsten oxide, tung stenic acid and tungstates, tungsten powder and its
products, heavy water, silicon carbide, substance depleting ozonosphere, chemicals under supervision,chemicals used for poison production, sawn timber, cocoon silk, gray fabric, cotton, silver, platinum
(export through processing trade), fixed size carbon steel sheet (to US), zinc and zinc alloy, tin and tin
alloy, antimony (including antimony alloy) and antimony products, motorcycle and motorcycle
engine, electric fan, computers, bicycle. These administrative measures have been notified to the
WTO.G/C/W/474
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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
Trading right for silk has been progressively liberalized since the beginning of 2002, and the
number of enterprises engaging in silk export operation has increased from 43 in 2001 to 145 to date.
China will abolish the restrictions on trading right for raw silk at the latest on January 1, 2005, as
committed.
(b)  access to supplies of raw materials in the textiles sector at conditions no less favorable
than for domestic users, and not adversely affected access to supplies of raw materials as
enjoyed under existing arrangements
Access to supplies of raw materials in textile 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 trading entities to trade in fertilizer and oil
and the filling of quantities available for import by non state trading entities
Under the current circumstances that China has not yet relaxed the trading right as well as the
domestic distribution right of fertilizers and oil products, in order to fulfill the commitment and to
progressively expand the non-state trading enterprises in this respect, China carries out a registration
system for non-state trading enterprises to be engaged in the trade of fertilizers and oil products. The
registration procedure is automatic and transparen t, and the lists of registered enterprises are
published.
The fill-rate of import quota for processed oil of 2002 is 92.5%; for crude oil, 100%; for urea,
60.7; for Diammonium phosphate, 86.8%; for KPK, 99.4%. In 2002, the former State Economic and
Trade Commission allocated import tariff rate quota for fertilizers and quotas for petroleum products
reserved for non-state traders for the year 2003. However, it is hard to tell the real import performance
of non-state trading entities because state-trading enterprises can also deal with non- state trading
import quota.
4.10 Government Procurement
(a)  Laws, regulations and procedures
Law on Government Procurement of the People’s Republic of China was adopted on
29 June 2002 and took effect on 1 January 2003. And the drafting of the implementing rules of the
law is under way.
 (b) Procurement in a transparent manner and application
To guarantee the transparency in government procurement, the competent authority of
Chinese Government has taken a series of measures.
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