Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, Administration of Automatic Import Licensing of Commodities Measures

Promulgated: December 31 2001
Effective: January 1 2002
Interpreting authority: Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC)
Applicability: The Measures shall not apply where commodities subject to automatic licensing enter into a bonded zone or export processing zone in China (Article 18). Where the importer of commodities subject to automatic licensing is a foreign investment enterprise, the existing relevant provisions shall continue to apply (Article 15).

Main contents: The Measures state that MOFTEC shall impose automatic import licensing on certain commodities as required in order to monitor the import of such commodities (Article 2). A catalogue of such commodities shall be determined by MOFTEC in consultation with other relevant departments and shall be published at least 21 days before implementation (Article 3). Automatic import licences shall be issued by the authorities and departments with authorization from MOFTEC (Article 5). Before importing commodities subject to automatic import licensing, an importer shall apply for an automatic import licence from the relevant licence issuing authority (Article 6). The importer shall then present the licence to the bank foreign exchange settlement and customs department for customs clearance of the imports (Article 6). Each automatic import licence shall be valid for the customs clearance of one shipment of commodities subject to such licensing within six months of the issue date (Article 13). For commodities that the law requires to be imported only by a State designated enterprise, the designated enterprise is the only party qualified to apply for the automatic import licence of the subject commodities (Article 9). Automatic import licences will not be issued for commodities that are subject to provisional import bans or quantitative restrictions (Article 12).
Related legislation: PRC, Foreign Trade Law (Revised), Apr 6 2004, CLP 2004 No.4 p34 and PRC, Administration of Import and Export of Commodities Regulations