Policies And Regulations To Be Made Consistent With Anti-Monopoly Law

When China enacted its Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) in 2007, some called it "China's Economic Constitution," anticipating that it would serve as the statutory basis for fundamental market-based reform of China's economy.

While the law has yet to fulfill that ambition, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) on December 12 posted the 2017-2018 Work Plan to Overhaul Existing Policies and Measures that Exclude and/or Restrict Competition (Work Plan) (dated December 5), jointly issued with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) to implement the State Council's Opinions Concerning the Establishment of a Fair Competition Review System in the Buildup of the Market System (2016) (Opinions). The Opinions require both reviews of new policies and measures (but not laws) and an orderly clarification of existing policies to ensure they are consistent with principles of fair competition embodied in the AML, i.e., to ensure they do not violate the AML's