The draft amendment to the Foreign Trade Law, submitted for
discussion for the third time, was passed by a unanimous vote at
the 8th meeting of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC)
Standing Committee, which concluded on Tuesday afternoon.
The ratification of the revised Foreign Trade Law, which will
take effect on July 1, ends a two-year-long review of laws related
to foreign trade and makes China's legal system consistent with its
WTO commitment.
Twelve other laws related to foreign trade, such as the joint
venture, foreign enterprise and customs laws, have already been
revised and passed.
Huang Jianchu, chief of the economic law section under the NPC
Standing Committee's Commission on Legislative Affairs, said that
legislation directly related to China's WTO commitment is now
complete and the focus will shift to reviewing related
administrative regulations.
The revised Foreign Trade Law has three major changes:
individuals are allowed to conduct foreign trade business; legally
registered foreign trade operators can now import and export goods
and technology without obtaining administrative approval; foreign
trade rights to a percentage of special products such as petroleum,
grain, chemical fertilizer, cotton, sugar and edible oil, which
were completely reserved for state-owned enterprises in the past,
will be granted to formerly unauthorized companies.
The revised Foreign Trade Law contains new clauses on
maintenance of order and fair trade and on seeking relief. This
will enable domestic traders to utilize the anti-subsidy and
anti-dumping protections of the WTO to safeguard their
interests.
In order to respond promptly to sudden changes in foreign trade
and provide better service to traders, the revised law also
includes clauses for establishing an early warning system, a public
information service system and a statistics mechanism, and
guidelines for publicity about illegal operations.
The only punitive measure in the existing law was the withdrawal
of operation credit. The revision strengthens sanctions against
illegal operations by adopting more severe punishments ranging from
criminal to administrative penalties and cancellation of operators'
licenses.
The revision also includes clauses protecting intellectual
property rights in trade to protect the rights of both domestic and
foreign property owners.
"The smooth passage of the revised law benefited from the full
participation in the legislation by the NPC Standing Committee
members, related administrative departments, state-owned and
foreign-funded trade enterprises and chambers of commerce," said
Huang.
The clause that enables a trader to ask for reconsideration or
legal proceedings following administrative punishment came from the
suggestion of chambers of commerce of foreign-funded trade
enterprises. A clause on mandatory imports and exports was canceled
because of the disagreement of members of the NPC Standing
Committee, according to Huang.
He stressed that the revised Foreign Trade Law is relatively
complete and feasible, but that it cannot be effectively
implemented without the amendments to the related administrative
regulations, which are still pending.
(Xinhua News Agency April 7, 2004)