TNAG-2468-FCO40-3592-Most-favoured-nation-status-for-China-Hong-Kong-interests-1992 — Page 14

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unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S.

If that determination is affirmative, USTR myst

determine what action, if any, is appropriate in response.

commerce.

The investigation included the following practices, which

affected major United States export interests: (1) failure to

publish, among other things, laws, regulations, judicial

decisions, and administrative rulings of general application

pertaining to customs requirements, or to requirements,

restrictions or prohibitions upon imports or affecting their sale

or distribution in China; (2) selected product-specific and

sector-specific import prohibitions and quantitative

restrictions; (3) selected restrictions upon imports made

effective through restrictive import licensing requirements; and

(4) selected technical barriers to trade, including standards,

testing, and certification requirements, and policy toward

veterinary and phytosanitary standards that create unnecessary

obstacles to trade.

These barriers were selected for investigation because they

appeared to be inconsistent with the multilateral rules and trade

liberalization principles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade (GATT) and to the multilateral codes negotiated under GATT

auspices, which would apply if China were a contracting party to

the GATT and its related codes, or otherwise constituted

significant barriers to U.S. trade.