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China Revise Laws Before Entering WTO

Xinhua, 9 June 2001

GENEVA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- China has already started a full-scale revision of laws and regulations to make them in agreement with the World Trade Organization (WTO rules, a Chinese official said here at the parliamentary meeting on international trade.

Cai Fangbai, member of the Chinese delegation of the National People's Congress (NPC), said that the Chinese NPC is speeding up the revision of about 30 laws and regulations incompatible with WTO rules.

He said that since last July, NPC and its standing committee have finished revisions on the Law on Chinese-Foreign Joint Ventures, Law on Foreign-funded Enterprises, Customs Law, Patent Law, Trademark Law and Copyright Law.

Other legislative work in the area of intellectual property rights is also geared up, Cai added.

He said that the Chinese government also speeds up the revision and abolishment of administrative regulations and rules. Some 114 administrative regulations and 459 departmental regulations are to be abolished, and five laws, 25 administrative regulations and 90 departmental regulations are to be revised.

The two-day parliamentary meeting on international trade, which began Friday, is the first of its kind held by the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU), a world organization of parliaments of sovereign states.

The meeting is being attended by parliamentary delegates from more than 80 countries and representatives of international organizations.