Dear Working Group members, 

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China would like to invite you to join the next joint Legal&Competition and Investment working group meeting. It will be held on Friday, 4 November 2016, 10:00 h – 12:00 h at the European Chamber Beijing office. Members in Shanghai will join this meeting via videoconference.

At this meeting, Ms. Mieke Vanderstraeten, Acting Head of the Trade Section at the Delegation of the European Union to China and Mongolia, will provide you with an update on the status of the amendment of the four foreign investment laws.

The four investment law were amended by the Decision of the Standing Committee of the NPC on Revising Four Laws, Including the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprises (the “Decision”) of 1 October 2016. According to this Decision,  certain foreign companies  will no longer need to obtain a prior approval from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) for corporate matters in China, such as their establishment, change of business scope, etc., provided that special restriction measures shall not be implicated. Following the new system, the prior approval shall be replaced by a simple registration. This new system of registration became effective with the Interim Measures adopted by MOFCOM on 8 October 2016. On the same day, MOFCOM, together with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), specified that the special restriction measures which would prevent the application of the new system of registration, shall be referred to the catalogue of restricted and prohibited foreign investment industries, i.e. the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries (Revised in 2015), i.e. the “Catalogue”. Therefore, if the scope of business of a foreign company does not fall into the Catalogue, MOFCOM approval will no longer be required and a record filing will be sufficient.

Ms. Vanderstraeten will explain the ongoing legislative reform in details and will reply to the members ‘questions on the topic.

Tentative Agenda:

10:00 – 11:00: Update on the status of the amendment of the four foreign investment laws by Ms. Mieke Vanderstraeten, Acting Head of the Trade Section at the Delegation of the European Union to China and Mongolia;

10:00 - 11:00: Q&A session.

As usual, we welcome your suggestions for agenda topics and possible speakers for this and future meetings.

Speakers

Ms. Mieke Vanderstraeten

EU Delegation in China

Ms. Mieke Vanderstraeten

EU Delegation in China

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Ms Mieke Vanderstraeten studied Law in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) and obtained an LLM (Lex Legis Magister) in European Law at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). She started her professional career at the Dutch Competition authority followed by 4 years as one of the three 'referendaire' (legal advisors) in the Cabinet of the Dutch Judge at the 'Supreme Court' of the European Union in Luxembourg. In 2004 she joined the European Commission in Brussels where she worked at the Competition authority of the EU. Since 2008, she became an EU Lead-negotiator on a substantial part of the 'Trade in Goods' chapter in EU's Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) negotiations in Asia (notably Korea, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand but also with Singapore and Japan). After the EU Flagship FTA with Korea entered into force, she simultaneously was also responsible for a substantial part of its implementation. Her experience in Asia has brought her to take up a diplomatic post at the EU Delegation in China in August 2013. While having dealt with a diverse pallet of issues at the Trade section (i.a. Competition enforcement in China, High Tech Trade, Chinese export credits, SOEs) she currently deals primarily with 'investment' and is as such part of the negotiation team of the 'EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment' which started early 2014. Ms Mieke Vanderstraeten is married and has 3 daughters.

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