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China Organization of Foreign Trade
The increasingly complex foreign trade system underwent
expansion and decentralization in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1979
the Ministry of Foreign Trade's nine foreign trade corporations
lost their monopoly on import and export transactions as the
industrial ministries were permitted to establish their own foreign
trade enterprises. The provincial branch corporations of the state
foreign trade corporations were granted more autonomy, and some
provinces, notably Fujian, Guangdong, and the special
municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai were permitted to
set up independent, provincial-level import-export companies. Some
selected provincial enterprises were granted autonomy in foreign
trade decisions. In 1982 the State Council's Import-Export Control
Commission, Foreign Investment and Control Commission, Ministry of
Foreign Trade, and Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations were
merged to form the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and
Trade. In 1984 the foreign trade system underwent further
decentralization. Foreign trade corporations under this and other
ministries and under provincial-level units became independent of
their parent organizations and were responsible for their own
profits and losses. An agency system for foreign trade also was
established, in which imports and exports were handled by
specialized enterprises and corporations acting as agents on a
commission basis.
Data as of July 1987
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