Creating an antitrust code is on the agenda of the law-making Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, whose tenure ends in 2008.

A draft of the code has been completed by the Ministry of Commerce and is currently being reviewed by the State Council's Legal Affairs Office. The draft will eventually be sent to lawmakers to read.

The draft law contains articles regulating monopoly agreements, abuse of dominant market status and large-scale consolidations.

It defines "monopoly" as a single operator controlling half or more of an industry's overall market share, or two operators colluding to hold two-thirds, or three holding three quarters.

"Being a monopoly is not an offence in itself. The trouble comes only when monopolies wield their dominant status to curb competition," said Huang Yong, an anti-monopoly consultant of the Ministry of Commerce, adding that the law does not specifically target multinationals as some quarters of the media have hyped.

"When drawing up laws, legislators need to study professional areas such as IPR, and strike the right balance between protecting patents and restricting abuse."

The World Trade Organization's benchmark Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) allows member countries to take measures to restrict IPR abuses or practise which curb international transfer of technology, provided that these measures are consistent with TRIPS.

Vice-Minister of Commerce Yu Guangzhou said late last month he was hopeful the antitrust law can be passed this year.

(China Daily February 2, 2005)