Ministry of Commerce, Tentative Measures on Complaints from Foreign-invested Enterprises

Promulgated: September 1 2006
Effective: October 1 2006
Interpreting authority: Ministry of Commerce
Applicability: The term "complaints from foreign-invested enterprises" refers to acts of requesting the complaint handling authority for reconciliation and resolution, or to present the case or put forward suggestions, opinions or requests, and have the complaint handling authority carry out reconciliation in accordance with the law by foreign-invested enterprises and their investors in China (Complainants) who find their lawful rights and interests being infringed by the administrative activities of administrative authorities (Article 2).

Main contents: The national complaint centre for foreign-invested enterprises and departments at all levels of local governments with the function of accepting complaints may accept complaints from foreign-invested enterprises (Article 5). The complaint materials shall be submitted in Chinese (Article 7). After receiving a complaint from a Complainant, the complaint handling authority shall, within five working days, make a decision on whether to accept the complaint. If the complaint is accepted, the complaint handling authority shall finish handling the case within 30 working days (Article 10).
The complaint handling authority shall handle complaints using one of the following methods:
1. giving suggestions to the Complainant and relevant departments based on the facts and relevant laws and regulations to help resolve the complaint;
2. carrying out administrative reconciliation with relevant departments;
3. transferring the complaint to the local complaint handling authority or the relevant department; or
4. other appropriate means (Article 11).