Sino-US Legal Exchange is the highest level of legal exchanges between Chinese and U.S. governments, held alternately each year in the two countries. Since in 1984 the establishment of Sino-US bilateral legal exchange mechanism of ministerial level between China and the U.S., under the contents stated in the 1984 Agreement of Sino-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade and 1994 Agreement of Sino-US Commercial Law Co-operation, the Seminar on Sino-US Legal Exchange has up to date been successfully held fourteen sessions. It is by this Seminar on Legal Change that the America and China’s legal profession understand mutual legal regimes and social backgrounds, learn from and absorb each other the good achievements and experiences of building up societies ruled by law. No doubt that this Seminar on Legal Change has been, and will be playing an important and positive effect on Sin-US relationship.

 

The Fifteenth Seminar on Sino-US Legal Exchange 2010 was held in China, selecting three cities Hangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu, which also are the most representative regional economic centers presently in China Eastern, Central and Western regions, as exchange centers of this seminar. Chengdu is the last stop that subject of which is to introduce the ongoing export promotion policy and legal frameworks of the United States as the representative of its National Export Initiative, the identification on non-market economy status determined by U.S., the application of countervailing duty statues, the trade remedy procedures, the development and comparative analysis relating to other trade remedial measures. The meeting was presided over by Ms. Dong Chaojie, the Vice-director of one deputy of the State Council Legislative Affairs Office. The members of American delegation mainly consisted of Mr. Cameron F. Kerry, the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce; Ms. Courtney Gregorie, the National Export Initiative (NEI) Director of International Trade Administration Bureau of U.S. Department of Commerce; Mr. Albert Hsu, the Chief Economist of the Imports Administration Bureau of U.S. Department of Commerce; and Mr. John McInerney, Principal Consultant of the Imports Administration Bureau of U.S. Department of Commerce, etc., while the Chinese delegation mainly consisted of Mr. An Jian, the Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council; Mr. Zhong Mian, the Vice-governor of Sichuan Provincial Peoples Government; Mr. Chong Quan, the Deputy Representative of International Trade Negotiation of the Ministry of Commerce, as well as the other principals, experts and staff as the representatives invited to attend seminars from the relevant government agencies, judiciary institutions, universities, law firms and trading companies.

 

In the Seminar, Ms. Courtney Gregorie, Mr. Albert Hsu, and Mr. John McInerney separately addressed the topics on the U.S. National Export Initiative, Non- market Economy Status, the Application of American Countervailing Duty Statutes, and American Trade Remedial Measures. China’s legal experts and scholars give the comments on the relative topics, and all participants had been making lively and thorough discussions on relevant issues with the American experts and officials. Attorney Zhao Junxi directly communicated in fluent English with the American experts on topics regarding the issues like reducing trade barriers in its National Export Initiative, the existed non-tariff barriers in the United States today, the protectionism policies, the relax criteria of countervailing import review policy and the speeding-up of the recognition of Chinas market economy nation status, as well as other hot issues, fully demonstrating the high level of expertise in dealing with foreign legal businesses with an excellent professional attainment.

 

(Edited by: China West Foreign Lawyer)