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In response to the amendments to the Foreign Trade Law, the Company Law and the Com-mercial Registration Law, and the enactment of the Electronic Signature Law, the Board of For-eign Trade, MOEA announced on 11 December 2002 the amendments to the Regulations Gov-erning the Registration and Administration of Exporters and Importers. The main amendments are as follows:
In line with the requirements of the Adminis-trative Procedural Law, the provisions of the regulations affecting citizens' rights and duties have been deleted, and are now stipulated in the Foreign Trade Law.
The amended Commercial Registration Law abolished the system of unified certificates for profit-seeking enterprises. After a company registers under the Company Law, or a sole proprietorship or partnership under the Com-mercial Registration Law, it no longer has to register as a profit-seeking enterprise and ob-tain a certificate for such registration under the Regulations Governing Insurance of Unified Certificates to Profit-Seeking Enterprises. The previous requirement related to profit-seeking enterprise registration certifi-cates under the regulations has been removed.
Under the amended Company Law, a com-pany may engage itself in any type of business that is not prohibited or restricted, except that it must acquire a special license for any type of business that requires a special license. However, the Commercial Registration Law provides that a commercial enterprise should not engage itself in any business beyond the scope for which it has obtained the registration. Therefore, before registering as an im-porter/exporter, a firm must still first register import/export business as a part of its business with the commercial registration authorities. In addition, according to the various regula-tions governing construction enterprises, venture capitals, aviation enterprises, travel agencies, and ambulance operators, these regulated businesses may only be engaged in a single area of business; therefore companies in those fields may not conduct import/export business at the same time. The regulations' provisions on eligibility for registration as an importer/exporter have been amended ac-cordingly.
To facilitate the introduction of online regis-tration, a new provision has been added whereby the documents required under the regulations may be submitted electronically in accordance with the Electronic Signature Law.
In resolving trade disputes, administrative agencies should only play an intermediary and conciliatory role. Since trade dispute resolu-tions are now regulated by the Foreign Trade Law, the requirement under the regulations whereby an importer/exporter involved in a trade dispute with a foreign client must re-spond within a specified time when so di-rected by the Board of Foreign Trade, has been deleted.
