Chinese officials attend a press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing to introduce a newly issued document aimed at strictly regulating administrative inspections of companies on January 7, 2025. Photo: VCG
China has vowed to further strengthen trade policy compliance and safeguard the legitimate overseas rights and interests of enterprises, according to a document released by the State Council on Friday.
The document proposes that compliance assessment be a necessary pre-condition before the introduction of trade policies. State Council departments and local governments should conduct compliance assessments on the proposed policy measures to ensure that they comply with the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and China's accession commitments.
State Council departments and local governments should make good responses and follow-up work to the compliance concerns raised by other members of the WTO on China's trade policies.
The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) should take the lead in actively conducting consultations and negotiations with other members of the WTO regarding illegal measures taken against China, and safeguard the legitimate overseas rights and interests of enterprises, the document said.
In a separate interpretation released by MOFCOM on Friday, it said the document came amid the background of China gradually growing from a passive recipient and active adopter of international economic and trade rules such as the WTO to an important participant, thus bringing new requirements for trade policy compliance work.
MOFCOM also said further strengthening trade policy compliance fully reflects China's consistent position of firmly maintaining the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core.
By ensuring a non-discriminatory and transparent policy environment for all market players, promoting a smooth flow of production factors and efficient allocation of resources, it is releasing market potential and laying a solid foundation for steadily expanding institutional opening-up and building a new open economy system at a higher level, MOFCOM noted.
Over a dozen Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), on March 13 issued a guideline to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) enhance their compliance awareness and strengthen compliance management.
The guideline, issued by 15 government departments, including the general office of the MIIT, and the corresponding offices of the Ministry of Finance, MOFCOM and the People's Bank of China, aims to improve compliance management and prevent production and operation risks while promoting the high-quality development of SMEs, according to a post on the MIIT's website.
Several areas of compliance management are highlighted, including product and service quality, environmental protection, intellectual property and international business operations.
Global Times
