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2009-04-30 | All chapters

EU to Probe Chinese Postal Law
Alan Field, The Journal of Commerce Online, 29th April 2009

Law may violate World Trade Organization rules

Reacting to a storm of protest by foreign companies in China, the European Commission said Wednesday that it is investigating whether China's new postal law, effective October 1, breaks World Trade Organization rules because it allows only China Post, a state monopoly, to deliver domestic letters and documents.

"We have received details of the new law and are currently analyzing it to see if it contravenes the rules of the World Trade Organization," Lutz Guellner, spokesman for EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton, told Reuters.

The new Chinese law, approved last Friday, effectively cuts out foreign firms such as FedEx and United Parcel Service. The new law defines letters and documents broadly, including almost all printed materials and information stored on CDs or DVDs. Foreign firms would be allowed only to deliver "packages" and international letters and documents in China, barring them from entering the highly profitable, rapidly expanding domestic market.

The new law has already been denounced as protectionist by such groups as the European Union Chamber of Commerce in Beijing and the Conference of Asia Pacific Express Carriers (CAPEC), which represents the interests of FedEx, TNT, Deutsche Post DHL and UPS in China.

Source: http://www.joc.com/node/411083

To view the European Chamber's press release on the new Postal Law, please click here.