Petrochemical Industry's WTO Commitments

According to the Schedule of Specific Commitments on Services, an annex of the Protocol of China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), offshore oil-field services include geological, geophysical and other scientific prospecting services and sub-surface surveying services that should only be in the form of petroleum exploitation in cooperation with Chinese partners.

Onshore oil-field services should only be in the form of petroleum exploitation in cooperation with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) in designated areas approved by the Chinese government. To carry out the petroleum contract, the foreign service supplier will establish a branch, subsidiary or representative office within the territory of the People's Republic of China and go through registration formalities in accordance with the laws.

The domiciles of the said offices will be determined through consultation with CNPC. The foreign service supplier will open its bank account with a bank approved by Chinese authorities to engage in foreign-exchange business within the Chinese territory. As for national treatment, the foreign service supplier will furnish the CNPC accurately and promptly with reports on petroleum operations, and will submit to CNPC data and samples, as well as various technological, economic, accounting and administrative reports related to petroleum operations. CNPC will have ownership of all of the data records, samples, vouchers and other original information acquired during the implementation of the petroleum operations.

The investment of foreign-service suppliers will be made in US dollars or other hard currencies. Within the first year of China's accession, foreign-service suppliers will be permitted to set up joint ventures to distribute the end product oil and crude oil; within five years of China's accession, foreign investors will be permitted to own majority stock rights and regional or quantitative restrictions; within three years of China's accession, retailing operations of product oil will be permitted.

According to Annex II: Staging Matrix for Section II (Other Products' Concessions), the mentioned petrochemical products are as follows: (tariff lines, product name, bound rate at the day of accession, final bound rate and implementation year, referring to January 1 of the year indicated when the final bound rate will be achieved)

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