Background. In 2014, to accelerate a new open-economy system, the General Office of the State Council and the Sichuan Provincial Government General Office successively issued documents on strengthening trade policy compliance (State Council Office Document [2014] No. 29 and Sichuan Office Document [2014] No. 77). To implement the decision of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee on establishing a compliance mechanism aligned with international rules, the State Council General Office issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening Trade Policy Compliance (Document [2025] No. 12) in March 2025, repealing the 2014 document. In December 2025, the Foreign Trade Law of the PRC was revised for the second time, explicitly providing that "the State establishes a trade policy compliance mechanism aligned with internationally accepted rules," requiring compliance assessment for policy measures involving foreign trade and trade-related intellectual property.
Because the basis for the 2014 Sichuan document had been repealed, and to strictly implement the revised Foreign Trade Law, the Sichuan Department of Commerce — drawing on the experience of other provinces — drafted the Notice of the Sichuan Provincial Government General Office on Further Strengthening Trade Policy Compliance. The Notice was issued and took effect on September 16, 2026.
Main content. The Notice consists of a main text and four annexes. The main text defines the scope of the province's trade policies and the functions and responsibilities of compliance bodies, standardizes the compliance-assessment procedure, and establishes a systematic management path from pre-issuance assessment to post-implementation compliance attention. It strengthens the cross-department coordination mechanism, clearly defining the leading role of the commerce department and the specific tasks of related departments. Closely aligned with the national deployment for high-level institutional opening-up, the Notice plays a fundamental and guiding role for Sichuan in preventing international trade-friction risks at the source, proactively aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and optimizing a market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment. Annexes 1–4 are respectively: a list of major WTO rules and China's relevant commitments; a trade policy compliance self-assessment form; a template for commerce-department assessment opinions; and a template for soliciting comments from other departments.
Highlights. During drafting, research was conducted inside and outside the province, drawing on the experience of other provinces and cities. The Notice designates the Department of Commerce as the lead agency for province-wide trade policy compliance, standardizes a combined "self-assessment + re-assessment" model covering both pre-issuance assessment and post-issuance compliance attention. For the first time, it provides that documents which have not undergone trade policy compliance assessment — or which fail assessment — may not be submitted for approval, deliberation, or promulgation. To improve assessors' capabilities and assessment quality, it creates three standard formats (self-assessment form, commerce-department opinion form, and comment-solicitation letter) and proposes a system for publishing compliance-assessment guidelines and typical cases in due course. In the spirit of reducing burdens at the grassroots, localities are required to follow the Notice without issuing separate supporting measures, with the Department of Commerce providing guidance.
Source: 四川省人民政府网站 / 四川省商务厅 · 2026-09-28