BEIJING, Aug 31 Asia Pulse - China's State Development and ReformCommission (SDRC) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) jointly issued theNotice on Redistribution of Import Quotas for Agricultural Products inlate August, with contents as follows:

1. If the import contracts signed by end consumers that hold 2004 importquotas for wheat, maize, rice, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, palm oil, ediblesugar and cotton fall short of the quota in amount, or the contracts havebeen signed but cannot be completed (meaning goods being shipped fromoriginal shipping ports) before the end of the year, they are required toreturn the remaining quota amount to provincial (regional, municipal, andcities under direct planning of the State) development and reformcommission or commercial departments (foreign trade and economiccooperation departments) before September 15. SDRC and MOC willredistribute these quotas. For those that have not returned unused quotas,SDRC and MOC will deduct the amount correspondingly from the 2005 importquotas allocated to them.

2. For end consumers that hold 2004 import quotas but have used it all(they are required to submit a copy of import declaration) and newconsumers that are qualified to apply for but did not apply for the 2004quota, they may apply for redistribution of quotas with provincial(regional, municipal, and cities under direct planning of the State)development and reform commissions or commercial departments (foreigntrade and economic cooperation departments).

3. The applicants are required to submit their applications to provincial(regional, municipal, and cities under direct planning of the State)development and reform commissions or commercial departments (foreigntrade and economic cooperation departments in written form on September1-15.

4. After preliminary examination, provincial (regional, municipal, andcities under direct planning of the State) development and reformcommissions or commercial departments (foreign trade and economiccooperation departments) will submit eligible applications to relevantauthority through related computer management system starting fromSeptember 1, and will itemize the applications by time order and submitthem in written form to SDRC and MOC before September 20.

5. SDRC and MOC will, according to time sequence of the applicationssubmitted through Internet, redistribute the unused quotas and notify endconsumers of the final results before October 1.

6. The Interim Measures, Distribution Principle and Detailed DistributionRules will apply in terms of effective period of the redistributed quotas.

7. The work of redistributing import quotas for wheat, maize, rice andcotton will be organized by SDRC and provincial (regional, municipal, andcities under direct planning of the State) development and reformcommissions, MOC and provincial (regional, municipal, and cities underdirect planning of the State) commercial departments (foreign trade andeconomic cooperation departments will be in charge of implementation.