Form of Establishment

• Foreign service suppliers may provide environmental services in the form of joint ventures, with foreign majority ownership permitted.

• Joint venture enterprises may provide sewage services, solid waste disposal, sanitation, cleaning of exhaust gases, noise abatement, nature and landscape protection, and other environmental protection services.

• Environmental quality monitoring and pollution source inspection services are prohibited.

• Managers, executives, and specialists of a representative office, branch, or subsidiary in China, temporarily moving as intra-corporate transferees, will be permitted an initial stay of three years.

• Managers, executives, and specialists of foreign-invested enterprises in China will be granted a long-term stay permit as stipulated in the terms of contracts concerned or an initial stay of three years, whichever is shorter.

• Service salespersons who are not based in China, and who meet certain other conditions set out in China’s services schedule, are limited to a 90-day stay.

• China reserves the right to place market access restrictions on the cross-border supply of environmental services, except for environmental consultation services.

• The consumption of environmental services abroad is not subject to market access restrictions and is accorded national treatment. 

• The conditions of ownership, operation, and scope of activities for an existing foreign service supplier, as set out in the supplier’s contract or shareholders’ agreement or in a  license establishing or authorizing the supplier’s operation or supply of services, will not be made more restrictive than they were on December 11, 2001.