What a Negative List!

• Citation: jd0240
• Date: 11 October 2016
• Published date: 11/10/2016
• Subject Matter: Economic Law

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A new “filing and negative list” regulatory system for FIEs has now been officially

launched in China.

On October 8th, 2016, the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) issued the Interim

Measures for the Administration of Establishment and Change Filings of Foreign-

invested Enterprises (“Interim Measures”), 34 days after the Standing Committee of

the National People's Congress (“NPC”) amended the “Three FIE Laws” (namely,

the Sino-foreign Equity Joint Ventures Law, the Sino-foreign Cooperative Joint

Ventures Law, and the Wholly Foreign-owned Enterprises Law) MOFCOM had

published the Interim Measures for the Administration of Establishment and Change

Filings of Foreign-invested Enterprises (Draft for Public Comment) (“Draft for Public

Comment”) on September 3rd, 2016.

Also on October 8th the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”)

and MOFCOM jointly issued Announcement No.22 of 2016 (“Announcement

No.22”), which provides that instead of the previous approval system a filing regime

will be used for the establishment and changes to foreign-invested enterprises

(“FIE”) that are not subject to national special administrative measures for

admission, including requirements for equity investment and executives for

enterprises in the prohibited, restricted and encouraged industries set out in the

2015 Guiding Catalogue on Industries for Foreign Investment (the so-called

“Negative List”), .

On the eve of National Day (September 30th, 2016), the State Administration for

Industry and Commerce (“SAIC”) issued the Circular of Registration of Foreign-

invested Enterprises Subject to Filing Administration.

Just as we predicted in our 7 September article Farewell to the Era of Case-by-Case

Approval Regime for Foreign Investment, the Interim Measures is not much different

from the Draft for Public Comment in its scope , filing method, procedures,

requirements and time limits. What turns out to be a big surprise to many people is

the much-anticipated negative list: instead of introducing a new set of special

measures for admission of foreign investment (Negative List) as it had done in the

past for free trade zones, the State Council merely referred to the relevant industry

11 October 2016

What a Negative List!