The National Development and Reform Commission and two other departments are carrying out a campaign to clean up market access barriers.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a notice on the "Launch of a Market Access Barrier Clearance and Rectification Campaign to Promote the Construction of a Unified National Market." The notice aims to comprehensively clear and rectify various unreasonable provisions and practices that violate market access barriers, report a number of typical violations, establish a sound mechanism for collecting clues, verifying and rectifying, and reporting cases, to ensure the implementation of the principle of "permit unless prohibited" and create a fair market access environment, providing strong support for adhering to and implementing the policies and building a unified national market. The original text is as follows: Notice from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation on Launching the Market Access Barrier Clearance and Rectification Campaign to Promote the Construction of a Unified National Market Development and Reform Commission [2025] No. 511 Central and State agencies, provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Development and Reform Commission, Commerce Department (Bureau), Market Supervision Administration: In order to deeply implement the important decisions made at the Third Plenary Session of the Twentieth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on deeply removing market access barriers and building a unified national market, and in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Central Committee and the State Council on improving the market access system, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with relevant departments, have jointly launched a campaign to clear and rectify market access barriers. The work requirements are as follows. I. Work objectives To fully implement the important decisions made by the Central Committee and the State Council on the deep removal of market access barriers, comprehensively clear and rectify various provisions and practices that violate the market access system, report a number of typical violations, establish a sound mechanism for collecting clues, verifying and rectifying, and reporting cases, to ensure the implementation of the principle of "permit unless prohibited" and create a fair market access environment, providing strong support for adhering to and implementing the policies and building a unified national market. II. Focus of clearing and rectifying The focus of this clearance and rectification is on all kinds of regulatory documents set up and implemented in the form of local regulations, rules, administrative normative documents, other policy documents that violate the requirements of the market access system, and the various practices of local governments in setting market access barriers. It mainly includes: (1) The state has already opened up but local areas are still in approval; (2) Approval based on inadequate legal effect; (3) Industry barriers causing unequal access rules; (4) Government regulatory capacity is insufficient to conduct approvals; (5) Violations of expanding the scope of approval, changing or adding approval conditions; (6) Delegating approval authority to form regional market barriers; (7) Setting access restrictions for enterprises from other regions; (8) Violating the negative list for market access and special management measures for foreign investment access requirements, and setting restrictions on the access of foreign-funded enterprises in violation; (9) A blank in supervision in new formats and areas leading to government inaction, failure to approve or delaying approval in elements such as land, planning, fire protection, etc.; (10) Contradictory access requirements, mutual preconditions; (11) Approval requirements under the commitment system are unclear, opaque, and increase business risks; (12) The access standards are too high and the approval process is too long; (13) Unjustified delays in approval or the government refuses to process other related procedures after obtaining approval; (14) Similar violations to typical cases in the negative list for market access previously reported by the National Development and Reform Commission; (15) Other violations of market access requirements. (see Annex 1 for details) III. Work arrangements for clearing and rectifying (1) Promote the clearance of local regulations, rules, and administrative normative documents. 1. Thoroughly review the relevant regulatory documents related to market access. The provincial development and reform commissions, together with the commerce and market supervision departments, will lead and organize the relevant departments at the provincial level responsible for the formulation of local regulations, rules, administrative normative documents, other policy documents, and conduct a comprehensive review of each item against the superior laws they are based on. Any violations such as setting up access items or conditions, and expanding the scope of access in violation must be corrected; any market access regulations established without legal basis and statutory procedures should be abolished. In accordance with the principle of hierarchical responsibility, the provincial development and reform commissions, together with the commerce and market supervision departments, will guide the development and reform, commerce, and market supervision departments at the municipal level, and the development and reform departments at the municipal level, together with the commerce and market supervision departments at the same level, to carry out the above work simultaneously. To ensure the comprehensiveness and accuracy of the document clearance work, the National Development and Reform Commission will organize cross-provincial cross-checks of the clearance results of provincial departments on market access barriers, and introduce artificial intelligence and other technological means for verification in a timely manner. The provincial development and reform commissions, together with the commerce and market supervision departments, will lead the comprehensive verification of the results of the clearance at the municipal and county levels in their respective provinces. 2. Promote document modification or abolishment. The provincial development and reform commissions, together with the commerce and market supervision departments, will classify the documents proposed for modification or abolition according to local regulations, rules, administrative normative documents, other policy documents, and, in accordance with the principle of "who formulates, who is responsible," work together with the departments responsible for formulating the documents to promote the modification or abolition of the documents. If they involve local regulations, they will be submitted to the provincial people's government for deliberation and decision and then to the same level of the People's Congress for processing according to procedures; if they involve local government rules, they will be submitted to the provincial people's government for deliberation and processed according to procedures; and for various normative documents and other policy documents issued by provincial departments, the departments in charge of formulation will be urged to modify or abolish them within a time limit. The modification or abolition of the documents should generally be completed during the clearance and rectification campaign, and for those that are not completed on time, an explanation of the situation must be provided along with a clear completion deadline. The clearance work at the municipal and county levels will be in accordance with the above arrangements. (2) Solicit clues on market access barriers. The clearance and rectification campaign will collect various problem clues that violate the negative list of market access requirements, violate the setting of market access barriers, harm the legitimate interests of business entities, etc., through various channels. The public can reflect relevant situations to the National Development and Reform Commission and various levels of development and reform departments through the following channels. 1. Establish a unified national network channel for collecting clues. A "Suggestions and Recommendations" section will be set up on the portal website of the National Development and Reform Commission to establish a channel for public to provide clues on issues that violate the construction of a unified national market.Call for "columns", the public can choose the category of "obstacles to the legal and equal access, exit and relocation of business entities" in the columns, leave a message to reflect the situation of market access barriers, the National Development and Reform Commission will uniformly verify and handle the problem clues, and strictly keep the information of the informants confidential.Clue Collection Website: https://www.ndrc.gov.cn/xwdt/ztzl/tydscjx/ 2. Issue a collection announcement. The provincial development and reform, commerce, and market regulation departments will release the "Notice for Collection of Clues on Removing Market Access Barriers" on government portals, government service apps, and mini-programs (see Annex 2), and prominently display them in government service halls at all levels for wide publicity to enhance public awareness. 3. Smooth communication channels. The provincial development and reform commissions will ensure smooth communication channels for removing market access barriers, providing clear information on mailing addresses, contact numbers, email addresses, and other means of communication, which will be made public. 4. Deepen clue collection channels. Encourage various levels of local development and reform, commerce, market supervision, and other departments to actively organize open collection of problem clues within their jurisdictions to ensure comprehensive and thorough cleaning and rectification. (III) Solidly promote verification and rectification. 1. Establish a provincial market access barrier account. The provincial development and reform commissions, together with commerce and market regulation departments, will summarize the problem clues collected through channels such as public solicitation, self-inspection, self-correction, and referrals from higher authorities; problem clues discovered through self-inspection at the city and county levels will be unified by the city-level development and reform departments and reported to the provincial development and reform commissions, who will establish a provincial market access barrier problem clue verification and rectification work ledger. 2. Hierarchical verification and rectification of clues. Problem clues involving provincial-level departments will be verified and rectified by the provincial development and reform commissions in collaboration with relevant departments, with timely rectification if the situation is confirmed. For those at the city level, the provincial development and reform commissions will guide relevant departments, and the city-level development and reform departments will lead the organization of verification and rectification. For those at the district and county levels, guidance will be provided by the provincial development and reform commissions in collaboration with relevant departments, and the city-level development and reform departments will team up with the relevant districts and counties to verify and rectify. Verification and rectification progress will be regularly reported to the national development and reform commission by the provincial development and reform commissions. 3. Supervision of key and difficult issues. Key and difficult issues with complex causes, strong feedback from business entities, high social attention, significant difficulty in rectification, or prolonged delay will be supervised by the National Development and Reform Commission in collaboration with relevant departments. For issues not verified or rectified within the specified time frame, or cases of refusal, inadequate rectification, concealment, or false reporting, they will be publicly announced and discussed; severe cases will be reported to the State Council according to procedures. 4. Public notification of typical cases. The National Development and Reform Commission will select typical cases from the verified and rectified problem clues reported by local authorities for public notification. These will be publicly disclosed on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission and the "Credit China" website, and simultaneously included in the nationwide city credit monitoring scope. Recognition will be given to regions that proactively discover problem clues and complete rectification on time, with case details reported in a non-specific manner. (IV) Strengthen departmental coordination. Central and state agencies involved in market access matters will enhance guidance within their respective systems, actively cooperating in the cleanup and rectification actions, updating the list of relevant officials and liaison personnel in accordance with the current negative list system for market access. (V) Enhance media supervision. The entire process of removing market access barriers will be transparent to society, and relevant information will be promptly disseminated through the news media. Invite Xinhua News Agency's full participation in publicity, reporting, and public opinion supervision, establishing a mechanism for sharing clues, investigating cases, reporting typical cases, and promoting experiences together. The Institutional Reform Department of the National Development and Reform Commission will jointly lead the work with the domestic news editing department of Xinhua News Agency, while provincial development and reform commissions and domestic branches of Xinhua News Agency will establish specialized teams. Provincial development and reform commissions will synchronously share collected clues and verified rectification progress with the local domestic branches of Xinhua News Agency. Designated individuals from Xinhua News Agency domestic branches will liaise with provincial development and reform commissions to share information from interviews, market feedback, public reports, etc., jointly analyzing and evaluating. Prominent problems and common issues discovered will be subject to various forms of public opinion supervision, while exemplary cases and experiences formed during work will be publicized through reporting. The centralized cleanup and rectification work will last for six months, with provincial development and reform commissions reporting regularly to provincial governments on the progress. After the cleanup and rectification period ends, the work of verifying, rectifying, and cleaning market access barriers will transition into a normalized mechanism. All regions and relevant departments are urged to give high importance, strengthen leadership, organizational coordination, and close cooperation to form a collaborative effort, establishing a robust long-term mechanism to effectively carry out the removal of market access barriers, investigation, and reporting of typical cases, and ensure the implementation of daily work. Source: National Development and Reform Commission Official Website; Edited by GMTEight: Chen Xiaoyi.