Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, General Administration of Customs and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, Administration of Import of Mechanical and Electrical Products Measures

Promulgated: December 20 2001
Effective: January 1 2002
Interpreting authority: Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC)
Applicability: These Measures apply to the import of mechanical and electrical products into the PRC by legal persons or other organizations in the PRC (Article 2). For the purposes of the Measures, "mechanical and electrical products" includes mechanical equipment, electric equipment, means of transportation, electronic products, electrical products and instruments and their parts and components (Article 3). These Measures do not apply to the import of new mechanical and electrical products by foreign investment enterprises as capital investment or for their own use (Articles 30 and 31).

Main contents: For import regulation purposes, mechanical and electrical products are divided into prohibited, restricted and automatic licensing imports (Article 6). The lists of these categories of imports shall be formulated, adjusted and announced by MOFTEC and the General Administration of Customs (Articles 8, 10 and 18). Restricted mechanical and electrical imports are further divided into quota-controlled and licence-controlled imports (Article 11). Quotas are established and announced annually by MOFTEC (Article 12). Import licences should be applied for with MOFTEC (Article 15). Automatic import licences shall be issued in respect of those mechanical and electrical products subject to automatic import licensing upon duly submitted applications (Article 19). Import of second-hand mechanical and electrical products shall be subject to import inspection (Article 23).
Related legislation: PRC, Foreign Trade Law, May 12 1994, CLP 1994 No.6 p20 and PRC, Administration of Import and Export of Goods Regulations, Dec 10 2001, CLP 2002 No.6 p14