Laws of the People's Republic of China

    Article 1  These Measures arc formulated in order to strengthen the
administration of the collecting of export proceeds in foreign exchange in
accordance with the provision in Interim Regulations on Foreign Exchange
Control of the People's Republic of China and with the requirements of the
State Council concerning the strengthening and perfecting of the system of
the collecting, verifying and writing-off of export proceeds in foreign
exchange.

    Article 2  Definitions

    (1) "Departments for foreign exchange control" refers to the State
Administration of Foreign Exchange Control and its branch offices;

    (2) "Trustee banks" refers to those banks (including foreign-capital
financial institutions set up within the territory of China, and
Chinese-foreign equity joint financial institutions) or non-banking financial
institutions which are approved by the State Administration of Foreign
Exchange Control to have the right to accept the entrustment of export
units for tendering documents to and claiming reimbursements from foreign
firms abroad.

    (3) "Paying banks" refers to those banks (including foreign-capital
financial institutions established within the territory of China, and
Chinese-foreign equity joint financial institutions), or those non-banking
financial institutions which are approved by the State Administration of
Foreign Exchange Control to have the right to accept the entrustment of
export units for tendering documents to and claiming reimbursements from
foreign firms abroad, and which can deliver payments for goods to exporters
in either RMB yuan or foreign exchange;

    (4) "Exporters" refers to those companies which have been approved by
the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade or by its authorized
units to have the right to handle export business, and also to those
enterprises as well as enterprises with foreign investment which have the
right to handle foreign trade.

    (5) "Instrument for the collecting, verifying and writing-off of export
proceeds in foreign exchange" (also referred to as "verifying and writing-off
instrument" for short) refers to vouchers with serial numbers, printed and
issued by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control, filled in by
exporters, trustee banks and paying banks, accepted by the Customs as
documents for clearance of goods, and used by departments for foreign
exchange control for verifying and writing-off export proceeds in foreign
exchange; and the said instrument has counterfoil attached to it;

    (6) "The deadline for the collecting" refers to the deadlines, as stipulated in Article 9 of these Measures, for the settlement or the
collection of export proceeds in foreign exchange;

    (7) "The overdue uncollected foreign exchange" refers to the non-settled
or uncollected export proceeds in foreign exchange, after the deadline for
the collection.

    Article 3  These Measures shall apply to all cases concerning the
collection of foreign exchange under the heading of export trade done in all
forms.

    Article 4  Exporters shall apply to the local department for foreign
exchange control for the verifying and writing-off instrument, which is
affixed with a stamp - with the inscription "COLLECTING OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE
UNDER SUPERVISION" - by the department for foreign exchange control. When
applying to the Customs for clearance of goods, an exporter must present to
the Customs the relevant verifying and writing-off instrument, and go through
the procedures for declaration at the Customs with a declaration form marked
with the serial number of the relevant verifying and writing-off instrument;
otherwise, the Customs shall not accept the application for Customs clearance.
After the completion of the procedures for Customs clearance of goods, the
Customs shall affix the stamp - with the inscription "CLEARED" - to the
verifying and writing-off instrument and to the declaration form marked with
the serial number of the said verifying and writing-off instrument.

    Article 5  In case that goods cannot be exported for one reason or another
after the exporter concerned has filled in the verifying and writing-off
instrument, the said exporter shall go through the procedures for the
cancellation of the verifying and writing-off instrument at the department for
foreign exchange control.

    Article 6  After going through the procedures for Customs declaration of
goods, the exporter concerned must, in good time, submit the relevant
declaration forms, the duplicates of drafts for remittance, invoices and the
counterfoils of verifying and writing-off instruments to the local department
for foreign exchange control for the verifying and writing-off of export
proceeds.

    Article 7  When an exporter tenders documents to a trustee bank, the
trustee bank must, on the strength of the verifying and writing-off instrument
affixed with the "CLEARED" stamp, accept the relevant export documents.
The trustee bank shall not be permitted to accept those export documents,
to which no verifying and writing-off instrument is attached. An exporter,
which handles export business either on its own or per procurationem, must
use its own verifying and writing-off instrument when applying to the Customs
for clearance of goods. A unit undertaking declaration at the Customs per
procurationem must return, in good time, the verifying and writing-off
instrument and the relevant Customs declaration forms to the consignor as soon
as it has gone through the Customs declaration procedures for the exporter.

    Article 8  An exporter, after using up the verifying and writing-off
instruments it has, may apply to the local department of foreign exchange
control for obtaining new verifying and writing-off instruments.

    Article 9  All the export proceeds in foreign exchange of an exporter
must be collected or settled, before the following deadlines for collection:

    (1) With respect to payments for goods through spot letter of credit or
through spot collection, it is stipulated that export proceeds in foreign
exchange must be settled or collected, within 20 days for region of Hong Kong
and Macao and other offshore areas, and 30 days for the areas beyond the
oceans, beginning from the day the relevant export documents are mailed.

    (2) With respect to payments for goods through forward letter of credit
or through forward collection, it is stipulated that export proceeds in foreign exchange must be settled or collected, within 30 days for region of
Hong Kong and Macao and other offshore areas, and 40 days for the areas beyond
the oceans, beginning from the day specified in the drafts of remittance for
payment.

    (3) With respect to payments for goods through consignment sales, the
exporter must indicate the deadline for the collection on the counterfoil
of the verifying and writing-off instrument, and the deadline shall not exceed
the time limit of 360 days beginning from the day when the procedures for
Customs declaration are completed.

    (4) With respect to payments for goods through the sending of documents
by the exporter itself - an operation not included in the scope of consignment
sales (This refers to the procedures of tendering documents and collecting
foreign exchange without the assistance of a bank), the exporter must settle
or collect export proceeds in foreign exchange within 50 working days beginning
from the day when the procedures for Customs declaration are completed.

    Article 10  An exporter, no matter what forms of export proceeds
collection it may adopt, must, within 30 working days immediately after the
deadline for the collection, go through the procedures at the local department
of foreign exchange control for the collecting, verifying and writing-off
of export proceeds in foreign exchange, on the strength of the verifying and
writing-off instrument signed by the paying bank, the foreign exchange
settlement voucher or the collection advice, as well as other relevant
certifying documents.

    Article 11  In case that export proceeds have not been collected within
the prescribed time limit, the exporter must promptly submit a written report
to the department of foreign exchange control, giving an account of the case,
and it is up to the department for foreign exchange control to handle the
case at its discretion.

    Article 12  The trustee bank and the paying bank shall strengthen their
supervision over the overdue export proceeds of exporter, and shall also, in
good time, press foreign banks for payment. The trustee bank and the paying
bank must, within the first ten days of each quarter, submit a report to the
local department for foreign exchange control concerning the uncollected
overdue export proceeds.

    Article 13  With respect to those who have violated the provisions of
these Measures, the department for foreign exchange control has the power to
impose on the violators such penalties as an administrative warning,
circulation of a notice of criticism, a fine, or a temporary suspension of
the use of a foreign exchange account. In case that the violators concerned
refuse to comply with the aforesaid penalty decision, the case may be handled
in accordance with Implementing Rules on Punishment of Violation of Foreign
Exchange Control adopted by the State Council on March 25, 1985 and
promulgated by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange Control on April
5, 1985.

    Article 14  The Measures for the supervision and control of the collection
of export proceeds in foreign exchange formulated by the various localities
and departments prior to the promulgation of these Measures shall cease to
be effective.

    Article 15  The right to interpret these Measures resides in the State
Administration of Foreign Exchange Control; and the relevant rules for
implementation shall be formulated by the State Administration of Foreign
Exchange Control in conjunction with other departments concerned.

    Article 16  These Measures shall go into effect as of January 1, 1991.