Laws of the People's Republic of China

Ministry of Commerce

Announcement of the Ministry of Commerce on the Issues of Replacing and Issuing Automatic Import Permit of Automobile Import Quota

[2004] No. 99

In accordance with the promises upon China¡¯s accession into the WTO, China will cancel the administration of automobile import quota as of January 1, 2005, and will carry out the administration of Automatic Import Permit for automobile import. The validity term of the Certification of Import Quota of Electromechanical Products and the Import Permit for automobile will expire on December 31, 2004 and be nullified automatically as of January 1,2005, when the import entities shall go through the formalities of declaration of automobile import on the strength of Automatic Import Permit. Seeing that the vehicles that some import entities have ordered during the validity term of Certification of Import Quota of Electromechanical Products is unlikely to be delivered before the end of 2004, for the purpose of doing well the work of linking up the administration of new certificates and the old ones and being beneficial to relevant enterprises¡¯ normal operation, the issues concerning the certificate replacement is hereby announced as follows:

1.

The procedures of replacing and issuing the Automatic Import Permit

(1)

The import entity shall file an application to the local or departmental Electromechanical Office for certificate replacement and submit relevant materials;

(2)

All the Electromechanical Offices shall check the materials of the application for certificate replacement, and then report to the Electromechanical Department of the Ministry of Commerce the written materials and electronic data of the application for certificate replacement of the import entities in his locality or department;

(3)

The enterprises under the jurisdiction of State Assets Regulatory and Management Commission and other relevant entities may submit to the Electromechanical Office in the place where they are located the relevant materials and electronic data concerning the application for certificate replacement; and

(4)

The Ministry of Commerce, after verification of the application materials, shall issue the Automatic Import Permit.

2.

The materials needed to replace and issue the Automatic Import Permit

(1)

The statement of the application for certificate replacement, which shall specify the former number of quota certificate, quantity, corresponding permit number, declared quantity and quantity of application for certificate replacement;

(2)

The Table for Application for Electromechanical Products Import, in which, the import user and commodity code shall accord with the corresponding content of the former quota certificate, the quantity of application for certification replacement may not exceed undeclared quantity in the former quota certification and the former number of quota certificate shall be indicated in the remarks column;

(3)

The Automobile Order Contract signed before December 31, 2004;

(4)

The certification materials of payment of foreign exchange issued by the bank before December 31, 2004;

(5)

The Certification of Electromechanical Products Import Quota; and

(6)

The Import Permit

The aforesaid materials must be authentic and valid. In case false materials are provided, the Automatic Import Permit shall not be replaced and issued.

3.

The validity term of the Automatic Import Permit

The validity term of the Automatic Import permit that is replaced and issued shall be half a year and shall not be extended.

It is hereby announced

Ministry of Commerce

December 28, 2004