China News Service (CNS):

My question is for the Ministry of Commerce. What efforts has the ministry made to protect IPR and improve the business environment in recent years? Thank you.

Chen Yusong:

Thanks for your question. Good afternoon to you all. In recent years, the Ministry of Commerce has firmly implemented decisions and plans made by the CPC Central Committee and State Council on enhancing IPR protection and improving the business environment to boost high-quality economic growth.

First, we have been strengthening IPR cooperation and negotiations. Regarding IPR cooperation, we have regular contact with the United States, European Union, Russia, Japan, Switzerland, and other important economic and trade partners. Those contacts are both comprehensive, covering all IPR areas of mutual concern, and cross-sectoral, with full participation from government departments, industries, business associations, experts, and scholars. Through these candid exchanges, we have promoted the resolution of mutual concerns and further increased economic and trade cooperation. Moreover, we have taken an active role in IPR exchanges through multilateral channels, including the WTO, APEC, the Belt and Road Initiative, and BRICS to promote smooth international trade. Concerning IPR negotiations, we have signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, which includes a high-level and detailed section on IPR. Its uniform IPR rules have improved the level of regional IPR protection and strengthened international IPR cooperation between related countries. We have also signed the agreement on geographical indications, with high-level protection and wide coverage of more than 500 GI products from China and the EU, further boosting economic and trade cooperation between the two sides. Besides, the Ministry of Commerce has also actively promoted enterprises' early IPR warnings and protection overseas. In 2020, we released 12,186 IPR early warnings on the China Intellectual Property Rights Protection Website (IPR in China), sent 151 articles to WeChat subscribers, and compiled 48 IPR weekly journals and 12 special journals on overseas IPR early warnings to provide in-time information.

Second, we have continued to improve the business environment. Regarding the efforts to improve the business environment for foreign investment, the Ministry of Commerce has implemented the Foreign Investment Law and its enforcement regulations, marking an end to the approval and filing procedures for the establishment and change of foreign-funded enterprises. We have further enhanced the protection of IPRs and trade secrets of foreign-invested companies. We have released the newly revised negative lists on the market access of foreign-invested companies in general and that for pilot free trade zones, cutting numbers of prohibited industries to 33 and 30 respectively. We have published the catalogue of encouraged foreign investment industries (2020 version), increasing the number of industries by more than 10%. We have revised and issued the Rules on Handling Complaints of Foreign-Invested Enterprises to further improve the working mechanism for complaints. Concerning the enhancement of trade facilitation, the Ministry of Commerce has been promoting the implementation of the WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). By January 2020, we had put in place TFA regulations and measures, and worked with related authorities to roll out a number of additional trade facilitation measures, reasonably adjusted import and export management catalogs, continued to use digital and intelligent means to simplify customs clearance procedures and improve port operation modes, expanded single-window functions of international trade, improved customs clearance efficiency, reduced customs expenses and improved the business environment for cross-border trade. Regarding pilot innovation in free trade zones, the Ministry of Commerce has continued to deepen reforms to streamline administration and delegate power, improve regulation, and upgrade services in the area of intellectual property. We focused on innovative financial functions of intellectual property and dispute settlement mechanisms in pilot free trade zones, delegated more power to pilot free trade zones in reform, promoted investment liberalization and facilitation in free trade zones and pilot free trade zones to improve trade facilitation, enhance the capability of the financial sector in serving the real economy, and facilitate the flow of people.

This is a brief introduction of the efforts made by the Ministry of Commerce. We will act with a firm resolve to implement the policy decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and State Council and promote domestic coordination and international cooperation in IPR protection. We will promote opening up at a higher-level, improve the business environment and make better use of international and domestic markets and resources to help foster a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other. Thank you.