On 28 June 2020, the 20th Meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress (“NPC“) Standing Committee of the People’s Republic of China (“PRC“) deliberated the second review draft of the Export Control Law (草案二次审议稿). This second review draft has now been published on the NPC webpage. Public comments on the latest draft may be submitted via the NPC website or postal mail from 3 July 2020 to 16 August 2020.
Some key revisions from the December 2019 draft include:
- Prohibition on all organizations or individuals from providing various freight forwarding, e-commerce, and customs brokering services to export operators engaged in the violation of export controls.
- Elimination of mandatory requirement for an internal compliance mechanism, though permit facilities may be granted if internal compliance mechanisms are well operationalized.
- Elimination of the expressly defined 45 day decision period for grant of export licenses. New Article 22 only states that decision on whether or not to grant a license will be decided within “a legal period.” Any further defined period may be set in future implementing regulations.
Baker McKenzie has prepared an English-language version of the Export Control Law, and it can be requested from the author at jon.cowley@bakermckenzie.com. In addition, our previous alerts about the past versions of the Export Control Law are available for the 2017 draft and the 2019 draft.
