Foreign Representative Office Procedures Consolidated

July 02, 2004 | BY

clpstaff &clp articles

A State Council abolishment decision has dropped the approval procedures for most representative offices, and only a registration procedure remains.

By Laetitia Tjoa, Neal Stender and Zhou Jingwen, Coudert Brothers, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai

China's foreign representative office establishment, change and termination procedures have recently been simplified for foreign companies in most industries. Now, the previous two-step application (for approval and registration) has been consolidated into a one-step application (for registration only). Only registration procedures by the local Administration of Industry and Commerce (AIC) will be required, without the approval procedures previously handled by local government foreign trade departments authorized by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM, formerly the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, MOFTEC).

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