Challenges and Paths for Foreign-invested Enterprises to Exercise Their Rights to Participate in China’s Standard-setting System Abstract

Abstract

In response to concerns raised by foreign-invested enterprises ("FIEs") in relation to technical market entry barriers, China promulgated a series of policy and legal documents to support FIEs to participate in standard-setting system. FIEs today note better transparency, greater access to standard- setting activities, and stronger links between China’ s standard-setting groups and their international counterparts. Despite these encouraging signs, FIEs still face significant barriers to full participation in China’ s standard-setting system. The main reason is that these policy and legal documents have not clearly stipulated the procedures for FIEs to participate in standard-setting system. This reserves more discretionary rights for domestic standard-setting entities to set restrictions on FIEs’ participation. To protect FIEs’ equal rights and optimize the business environment, it’ s necessary to regulate the due process of FIEs’ participation in standard-setting system. Despite some challenges, FIEs can take some measures to find the proper level of engagement and participation in China’ s standard-setting.