| In order
to comply with the newly amended “FOREIGN TRADE LAW OF CHINA”the
State Department has amended the “PRC Anti-dumping Regulations”，the
“PRC Anti-subsidy Regulations” and the ”PRC Safeguard Measures Regulations”.
These amendments were made 31 March 2004, taking effect 1 June 2004.
A summary of the amendments is as follows:
“PRC Anti-dumping Regulations”:
1. The Investigation Authority has been unified.
The PRC Ministry of Commerce has become the exclusive authority
for these regulatory matters, taking over for the Ministry of Foreign
Trade & Economic Commission (MOFTEC) and the State Economic
& Trade Commission (SETC).
2. Language has been added stating that “the collection
of…..duty should comply with the public interests”. This enables
the government to take measures to protect domestic industries,
under WTO regulations.
3. Adding measures for retroactive collection
Anti-dumping duties. After investigation, if the Ministry of Commerce
has enough evidence, it could take the measures such as import registration,
etc, for the purpose of collecting owed Anti-dumping duties retroactively.
4. Investigation of dumping and damage at the
request of the exporter has become a compulsive duty of the Investigative
Authorities, rather than an option as it was before.
《PRC Anti-subsidy Regulations》
With the exception of retroactive collection of
duties, amendments to PRC Anti-subsidy Regulations are the same
as for PRC Anti-dumping Regulations (Ministry of Commerce now has
investigative authority, public interest measures have been enacted
and automatic investigation). One new difference is that the use
of the term “Cash Deposit” in the old version has been amended into
“Deposit”. This now allows for non-cash deposits such as portfolios,
options, etc.
《PRC Safeguard Measures Regulations》
This Regulation also has similar amendments that
were described above to the Anti-dumping and Anti-Subsidy Regulations
(i.e. unification of investigative authority, etc.). One key difference
for the Safeguard Measures however, is that the maximum term of
Safeguard Measures has been prolonged from 8 years to 10 years.
- Ramon Gu
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