The Chinese government published a regulation on January 17 to lift some restrictions on tax margin payments for enterprises engaged in the processing trade.

The regulation was jointed published by the State Economic and Trade Commission (SETC), the General Administration of Customs (GAC), the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the Bank of China.

It stipulates that, acknowledged by the GAC, financial institutions and other companies with the legal-person status capable of settling debts can provide warrants to customs for processing trade enterprises.

At present the GAC and the People's Bank of China have confirmed the Bank of China as the financial institution to provide guarantees for processing trade companies.

A senior official from the SETC said that the regulation will help improve the standardization and administration of the country's processing trade. The qualifications of other companies for theguarantee will be confirmed soon.

According to customs statistics, the export of China's processing trade reached 110.9 billion US dollars last year, up 6.1 percent from the previous year, accounting for 56.9 percent of China's total export. (Xinhua)