Provisional Rules of Ministry of Foreign Trade & Economic Cooperation on
Questionnaire in Antidumping Investigations
Chapter 1   General Provisions
Article 1   With a view to ensuring an anti-dumping investigation by way of questionnaire going smoothly and orderly, these Rules are formulated in accordance with provisions of the “Antidumping Regulation of the People’s Republic of China”.

Article 2   The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (hereinafter referred to as MOFTEC) delegates the Bureau of Fair Trade for Import and Export to be responsible for implementation of these Rules.

Article 3   These Rules apply to an anti-dumping investigation s carried out by MOFTEC through the method of investigation questionnaire in order to determine dumping and dumping margin.

Article 4   The investigation questionnaire mentioned in these Rules refers to a written question list issued by MOFTEC, during the antidumping investigation, to the exporters and producers of the countries (regions) concerned who have registered in and responded to the investigation (hereinafter referred to as “responding company”).

Article 5   The responding company shall, according to the requirements made by MOFTEC, reply completely and accurately to all questions listed and submit all information and materials required in the investigation questionnaire. 

Chapter 2   Issuance of Questionnaire
Article 6   The producers or exporters of the countries (regions) concerned shall,  according to the requirements specified in the Public Notice for the initiation of the investigation, register with MOFTEC and respond to the investigation within 20 days from the date of initiation of an anti-dumping case. 

Article 7  The producers and exporters, while handling their registration with MOFTEC and responding to the investigation, shall submit the following information in simplified Chinese printing: 

Intent of registration in and responding to the investigation;
Name, address, legal representative, way of contact and contact person of the responding company;
Total quantity and value of the product under investigation exported to the P eople’s Republic of China during the period of investigation.
The registration document for responding to the investigation shall be sealed by the responding company and/or signed by its legal representative.

Where a practising attorney at law of the People’s Republic of China is appointed for the submission of the registration document, the responding company shall list, as part of the document, the attorney’s name, way of contact, name and address of the law firm the attorney appointed belongs to and the original power of attorney.

Article 8   The investigation questionnaire shall be issued to the responding companies within 10 working days upon the ending of registration.

Article 9   If the number of responding companies is too large and MOFTEC decides to carry out the anti-dumping investigation by using sampling method, the investigation questionnaire may be issued only to the responding companies selected in the sample.

MOFTEC may properly extend the period of issuing the questionnaire if the investigation is conducted by sampling.

Chapter 3   Requirements on Response to Questionnaire
Article 10  The responding company shall submit a complete and accurate response to the questionnaire within a specified time limit. The response shall contain all information required in the investigation questionnaire.

Article 11  The responding company, encountering questions while replying to the investigation questionnaire, may consult in writing the case handlers listed in the questionnaire.   

Article 12   Before answering the questions listed in the investigation questionnaire, the responding company shall first lay out the subject of the question and then answer directly under the subject.

Article 13   The questionnaire shall be completed in simplified Chinese printing and shall be attached by relevant supporting documents according to the requirements. If the supporting materials are in foreign languages, the Chinese translation shall be provided in the original form of the text in foreign languages, with attachment of such original text in foreign languages or its copy.

Article 14   The responding company shall indicate the source and origin of the supporting materials used in the response. All documents relevant to the questionnaire, such as sales documents, accounting records, financial reports and other documents, shall not only be attached to the response to the questionnaire of the company as required, but also be made available for afterward verification.

Article 15   The supporting materials for transactions required by the questionnaire shall be lined up in chronological order; supporting materials for each transaction shall be lined up according to the flow of activities and a sheet listing those supporting materials for each transaction shall be provided.

Article 16  Where the responding company is required, according to the requirement of the questionnaire, to copy the investigation questionnaire and forward it to its associated trading company or other related companies to complete, the associated trading company or other related companies shall submit the questionnaire separately according to the requirement of the questionnaire.

Chapter 4   Submission of Questionnaire
Article 17   The response to the investigation questionnaire shall be submitted to MOFTEC within 37 days from the date on which it was issued.

Article 18   Where the responding company has reasonable grounds indicating that it is unable to complete the questionnaire before the submission deadline, the responding company shall submit, 7 days before the submission deadline, to MOFTEC a written request for an extension of the period for submission of the response to the questionnaire, elaborating its request and reasons for such extension. 

MOFTEC shall reply in writing, 4 days before the submission deadline, to the request for the said extension upon the consideration of the specific situation of the responding company requesting the extension.

The extension shall not exceed 14 days normally.

Article 19   Where the responding company considers that the response to the questionnaire contains confidential information, the responding company shall request for confidentiality treatment and address the reasons for such confidentiality treatment.

A non-confidential summary shall be given for information requested for confidentiality treatment. A non-confidential summary shall contain adequate and meaningful information so as to allow other interested parties to have a reasonable understanding. In case the provision of a non-confidential summary is impossible, the responding company shall explain the reasons thereof.

Article 20   MOFTEC shall examine the request for confidentiality treatment. If the reason for confidentiality treatment is considered insufficient, or the non-confidential summary does not satisfy the requirement specified in Paragraph 2 of Article 19 of these Rules, or the reason that the responding company fails to provide the non-confidential summary is insufficient, the responding company may be required to make corresponding amendments thereon within a specified time limit.

MOFTEC may disregard the materials if the responding company refuses to amend the non-confidential summary or the non-confidential summary after being amended does not yet satisfy the requirement.

Article 21   The response to the questionnaire shall be made in two versions. One version is a complete response containing the confidential information; the other version is a response only containing non-confidential information. The responding company shall clearly mark on the cover page of each response as confidential version or non-confidential version. In the non-confidential version of the response, the confidential part shall be marked with a signal of “[  ]”, plus  the corresponding serial number in the non-confidential summary.

Article 22   The responding company shall submit one original response and four copies in Chinese for confidential version and non-confidential version respectively. 

The whole response must be properly bound up into book. The page number must be labelled on the text of the response and on each attached supporting materials. The response shall contain a table of content for the text of the response and the attached supporting materials, and each annex shall be labelled with serial number.

Article 23   The responding company shall submit a letter of certificate signed by the legal representative or its authorized person according to the requirement of the questionnaire, stating that the information submitted by the responding company is accurate and complete.

MOFTEC shall not accept the response to the questionnaire if such letter of certificate is not attached to.

Article 24   With respect to the narrative part and tables of data in the response submitted, the responding company shall provide corresponding computer floppy disk , CD or other electronic data carriers acceptable to MOFTEC according to the requirement of the questionnaire. 

The content in the electronic data carriers shall be in the same format as in the response, and the calculation formula shall be retained in the table if calculation on the data is involved..

Article 25   The responding company shall guarantee that the submitted electronic data carrier contains no virus. It would be considered as to impede the investigation if it contains certain virus, and in such case MOFTEC may make determination on the basis of facts available and the best information available. 

Article 26   In normal circumstances, the responding company who fails to submit the electronic data carrier, in particular the one containing transaction data and financial data, shall be considered as non-cooperative.

If the responding company is unable to submit electronic data carriers or unable to submit electronic data carriers according to the requirement of these Rules, or it would be unduly burdensome for the responding company to submit electronic data carriers according to the requirement of these Rules, the responding company may submit a written request to MOFTEC within 15 days after the questionnaire is issued, explaining the reason of inability to submit electronic data carriers as required. MOFTEC shall reply in writing to the responding company on whether to approve the request within 5 days upon the receipt of it.

Article 27   The response to the questionnaire of the responding company shall be represented through a practising attorney at law of the People’s Republic of China and relevant matters shall be dealt with by the attorney. A valid power of attorney and a copy of the valid lawyer permit of the attorney shall be attached to the response to the questionnaire.

Article 28   The response to the questionnaire shall be mailed or directly delivered to the address mentioned in the questionnaire by 17:00 of the submission deadline.

The delivery date shall be the date on which MOFTEC receives the response to the questionnaire.

Chapter 5   Supplementary Provisions
Article 29   In the course of the investigation, MOFTEC may issue supplementary investigation questionnaire to the responding company, requiring further information and materials.

These Rules shall apply to the matters relevant to the issuance, response, submission, etc. of the supplementary questionnaire.

Article 30   MOFTEC may issue the investigation questionnaire to importers. These Rules shall apply to the matters relevant to the issuance, response, submission, etc. of the investigation questionnaire to the importers.

Article 31   Where the responding company does not submit the response to the questionnaire within the specified time limit, or can not submit a complete and accurate response to the questionnaire according to the requirement specified in these Rules, or does not permit MOFTEC to verify the materials it submitted, or impedes seriously the investigation through other methods,  MOFTEC may make preliminary or final determination on the basis of facts available and best information available.

Article 32   MOFTEC shall be responsible for interpretation of these Rules.

Article 33   These Rules shall enter into force from the date of 15 April 2002.