On December 30, 2022, the Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM) issued the draft of the Catalogue of Technologies Prohibited or Restricted by China from Export (hereinafter referred to as “the Catalogue”) to call for public comments. The call for comment period will end on January 28, 2023.
The Catalogue is a supportive document under the Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China ( the latest revision has come into force on December 30, 2022), and it was first issued in the year of 1997 and has been updated several times. Relevant amendments aim to further remove and adjust some control points listed within, to optimize the business environment of technology trade and promote technology trade facilitation. As technology trade is different from other ways of international economic and trade cooperation, some cutting-edge technologies in certain fields may have an impact on national security, social public interests or public morality. Therefore, with the change in the international situation in recent years, as well as the continuous improvement of China’s scientific and technological strength and industrial competitiveness, some emerging frontier technologies have been included in this draft of Catalogue.
The main amendment shown In the draft are summarized as follows:
· 32 technological items are removed from the restricted/prohibited list from sectors such as grain processing technology, agricultural machinery manufacturing technology, chemical pesticide production technology, photosensitive material production technology, industrial detonator production technology, engineering machinery application technology, electrical materials production technology
· Clarification for 36 technological items is provided in sectors like nonferrous metal metallurgy technology, unmanned aerial vehicle technology, computer hardware and external equipment manufacturing technology, communication and transmission technology, computer network technology, information processing technology, high-performance detection technology, acoustic engineering technology etc.
· Newly-added items include photovoltaic silicon wafer preparation technology, Lidar system, human cell cloning and gene editing technology, CRISPR gene editing technology, synthetic biology technology, crop hybridization utilization technology, bulk material handling and transportation technology etc.
In all, the main sectors that are involved in this round of revision include ICT, PV/new energy, automation and biomedical. Contents regarding ICT had a number of control points removed and specifies more details on existing restriction requirements.
In addition, most of the control points in this draft remains very general, which will require further supervision details for practical review.
Foreign stakeholders, manufacturers and exporters are advised to review if the revised Catalogue would affect their current business. For newly added restricted technologies, active communication with administrative authorities is very necessary to minimize the possible impact, as well as clarify further review and supervision details. Meanwhile, participation in the call-for-comment to be in touch with such authority to provide feedback could also be viable way to acquire up-to-date information, and avoid potential compliance risks.
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