China becomes more skilled with int'l trade rules
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-04-09 11:37

China passed an amendment to the Foreign Trade Law on Thursday, indicating another step in improving property rights protection.

The draft amendment to the Chinese Foreign Trade Law, submitted for deliberation for the third time, was passed by a unanimous vote at the Eighth Meeting of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee closed Tuesday.

Eddy Chan, vice president of Fedex China region, said by the new law, China has turned the rules of the World Trade Organization into part of domestic law.

Intellectual property protection in China is one of the major issues that foreigners are concerned about and many foreign companies have also filed lawsuits against Chinese companies.

However, little attention has been paid to Chinese intellectual property rights infringed upon abroad.

The revised law has added clauses on protecting intellectual property rights in trade, which is common in many countries' business law, aiming to protect the rights of both domestic and foreign property owners.

Wilson Kwok, of the Canadian Business Company said China will protect its legal rights. The revised law also added clauses concerning how to maintain fair trade and how to exert trade relief, so that the domestic foreign trade conductors could utilize anti-subsidy and anti-dumping means under the WTO framework to safeguard their own justified interests in international trade affairs.

Lisa Alian with Western Aussie Advertising and Design Company, said the revised law enables Chinese companies to get subsidies from the government if their rights are infringed.

The revised law says individuals can also be operators of foreign trade. Richard Liu, a Hungarian Chinese who engages in international trade, said this will promote the development of China's economy which will becomes the basis of China's engaging international trade.