China Publishes Lists and Rules Related to Import and Export of Commercial Encryption

Eric Carlson, Yan Luo, Min He and Zhijing Yu of Covington & Burling write:

On December 2, 2020, China’s Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”), State Cryptography Agency (“SCA”), and the General Administration of Customs (“Customs”) jointly issued three documents (here) related to import and export of commercial encryption items:

List of Commercial Encryption Subject to Import Licensing Requirement (“Import List”);

List of Commercial Encryption Subject to Export Control (“Export List”); and

Procedural Rules on [Applications for] Licenses for the Import and Export of Commercial Encryption (“Procedural Rules”).

The issuance of these lists and procedural rules marks a key step forward implementing both the commercial encryption import and export framework established under the Encryption Law, which took effect on January 1, 2020, and the export control regime under the new Export Control Law, which took effect on December 1, 2020.