Efforts to ensure export control law implementation

China will promote the legislation of supporting laws and regulations on the newly passed export control law to ensure its effective implementation, the Ministry of Commerce said on Thursday.

The government will release the export control list in due course in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, said Gao Feng, a spokesman for the ministry.

The official made the remarks after China’s top legislature on Saturday passed a law on export control, which will go into effect on Dec 1.

With detailed stipulations on export- control lists and measures, the law was adopted after the third reading at a bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

China may take countermeasures against any country or region that abuses export- control measures and poses a threat to its national security and interests, according to the law.

The law also clarifies that technical documentation related to the items covered by the law is also subject to export- control stipulations.

Export control is a common international practice in which a country prohibits or restricts the export of specific items, such as nuclear materials, in order to fulfill its international obligations, such as nonproliferation, while safeguarding its own national security and development interests.

Since the late 1990s, China has formulated six regulations on export control, covering areas including biological, chemical, missiles and other military items to fulfill certain international obligations, said Gao.

Before the law was passed last week, he said the ministry had collected 252 suggestions from foreign embassies, domestic and global companies, business chambers and law firms since June 2017.