China Issues Document to Improve Market Access System

On August 21, 2024, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council released the Guidelines on Improving the Market Access System (the “Guidelines”), which clarify 10 points of content.

The Guidelines call for improving the negative list management mode, and including market access management measures and temporary ones in a unified national market access negative list. The Guidelines said that illegal settings of access permissions beyond the list, illegal addition of access conditions, and arbitrary establishment of market access negative lists are strictly prohibited. The Guidelines instruct to scientifically set market access rules, remove all access barriers in sectors under full competition, and significantly reduce market access restrictions on business entities. The Guidelines also call for the gradual removal of market access restrictions in the service sector, improving the market access environment in new forms of business and new sectors, and stepping up efforts to ease market access in more sectors on a pilot basis.