China Officially Releases the Export Control Act

On October 17th, 2020, the Export Control Act of the People’s Republic of China ^[1] was approved at the 22nd Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress, and scheduled to come into force on December 1^st, 2020.

Compared with the draft released at the end of the last year, changes have been made to the structure and language of some provisions, while there is no significant difference in main content (Chemlinked News ^[2]). The official version of the Act consists of 5 chapters, 49 articles. Chapter 2 Control policies and lists and Chapter 3 Control measures in the draft are now merged into one chapter.

According to the Act, export control administrations refer to export control departments under the State Council and the Central Military Commission. The administrations shall:

• Formulate control inventories, lists or catalogs for the controlled items.

• Promulgate export control guidelines for relevant industries in due course to guide exporters to establish and improve internal export control compliance systems and regulate operations.

The export of controlled items shall also be supervised and investigated by the administrations. Measures may include:

• Investigating the business premises

• Requesting an explanation of the incident under investigation

• Reviewing relevant documents

• Inspecting the means of transport

• Sealing up relevant items

• Investigating bank accounts.

For exporters, they shall be qualified before operating the export of controlled items. When exporters plan to export the controlled items or temporary controlled items listed in the inventories, they shall apply for a permit from the administrations. If the exporter behaves well on complying with the export control measures, administrations may provide convenient measures for his business, such as issue a unified permit for his export of controlled items.

The Act also emphasizes the protection of national security and interests. Where any country or region abuses export control measures to endanger the national security and interests, China may take reciprocal measures based on actual conditions in accordance with the Export Control Act.