The Revised Foreign Investment Catalogue: Grounds for Optimism?
March 31, 2002 | BY
clpstaff &clp articlesChina's foreign investment catalogue has been revised for the first time in more than four years. The new catalogue has made radical changes to the different categories into which all foreign investment is classified.
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By Hongchuan Liu,
Yiwen Law Firm,
Beijing
On March 11 2002, the State Development and Planning Commission, the State Economic and Trade Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation promulgated the long-awaited revised version of the Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue (外商投资产业指导目录) (the New Catalogue). The New Catalogue is effective as of April 1 2002. It has been more than four years since the last revision, effective December 31 1997 (the 1997 Catalogue). The original intention of the drafters was for the Catalogue to be revised and updated every two or three years. The significant delay in this round of revisions was mainly due to the prolonged WTO negotiations that culminated in China's accession to the World Trade Organization. China intended to use the opening of some of its key industries as bargaining chips, and thus it would have undermined China's negotiating position if it voluntarily and prematurely opened up new industries (some of which China had already decided to open for its own interests anyway) until the conclusion of the WTO accession negotiations.