The Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") has recently issued the Decision on Amending Some Rules (the "Decision"), immediately effective from the date of issuance.
According to the Decision, some provisions of certain rules, including the Measures for the Invitation for Bids for Export Commodities Quotas, the Interim Measures for the Administration of Import Tariff Quotas of Fertilizers, the Administrative Measures for the Automatic Import Licensing for Goods and the Administrative Measures for the Import of Specified Used Mechanical and Electronic Products, are modified this time. Among others, the Decision removes the phase "the total amount of quotas on the bids won by a foreign-invested enterprise in a whole year shall not be higher than the scale of exports assessed by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (a ministry that has been dissolved, with its functions undertaken by the current MOFCOM)" specified in Article 20 of the Measures for the Invitation for Bids for Export Commodities Quotas. Meanwhile, the words "central fund for foreign trade development" in Paragraph 1 of Article 24 thereof is changed to read "fall under the general public budget management and be turned over to the central treasury", and the words "office of bid invitation" in Paragraph 3 of Article 24 thereof is revised to read "entrusted service agency"; and Article 33 has been amended to read: "all relevant license issuing bodies shall, in accordance with relevant provisions and the bid wining certification, grant export licenses".