China's Ministry of Finance said it is scrapping certain rules that foreign companies say favored domestic products for government procurement, a significant step toward easing concerns that global companies would be excluded from billions of dollars in contracts.

　　中國財政部說，將廢除外資公司認為在政府采購中有利于中國本國產品的某些規定。國外企業無緣數百億美元合同的擔心，由此得到很大程度的緩解。

　　As part of a broader government initiative to foster "indigenous innovation," the Finance Ministry had issued a series of regulations in the past several years requiring products bought by the government to have Chinese intellectual property. Those rules and related ones from other ministries triggered a backlash among foreign companies and became one of the biggest sources of trade friction with the U.S.

　　根據一個培育“自主創新”的政府行動計劃，財政部曾在過去幾年發布一系列規定，要求政府采購的產品必須具有中國的知識產權。這些規定以及其他部委發布的相關規定引起外企強烈反彈，并成為中美貿易摩擦的最重要誘發因素之一。

　　In a brief statement posted on its website, the Finance Ministry said that "after research," it had decided from July 1 to "stop enforcing" three regulations related to the procurement policy. It named the rules─to do with budget, screening and contract management─but didn't otherwise elaborate.

　　財政部在其網站發表簡短聲明說，“經研究”，它已決定從7月1日起“停止執行”有關采購政策的三項規定。財政部列出了這些規定的名稱，分別涉及預算、評審和合同管理。

　　In January, Chinese President Hu Jintao, on a state visit to the U.S., agreed to delink Beijing's innovation policies from its government-procurement preferences and pledged that China wouldn't discriminate against products from foreign suppliers. But executives and officials have been waiting for formal statements from China's central government implementing that policy and telling other arms of government to comply.

　　國家主席胡錦濤今年1月份對美國進行國事訪問時，同意將北京的創新政策與其政府采購偏好脫鉤，并承諾中國不會歧視來自國外供應商的產品。但美國的企業高管和政府官員一直在等待中國中央政府發表實施這一政策的正式聲明并要求其他政府部門遵守。

　　In a statement, U.S.-China Business Council President John Frisbie said the Finance Ministry notice is "an important development given that companies encounter indigenous-innovation policies and barriers to sales at multiple" government levels in China. "Though the measures represent only a portion of the full list of regulations that tie indigenous innovation and government procurement, the elimination of these measures is an important step toward fulfilling pledges made by" Chinese leaders, including Mr. Hu, he said.

　　美中貿易全國委員會(U.S.-China Business Council)會長傅強恩(John Frisbie)說，考慮到企業在中國各級政府遭遇自主創新政策，和銷售產品的障礙，財政部的公告是“一個重要進展”。他說，雖然這些被廢除的措施只代表將自主創新與政府采購掛鉤的所有規定的一部分，但其廢除是朝著兌現胡錦濤等中國領導人所做承諾邁出的重要一步。

　　In addition to the Finance Ministry's procurement regulations, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology also issued rules that established an accreditation system under the banner of "Indigenous Innovation" through which companies would have to submit their products in order to be considered for government procurement. The status of those other rules isn't clear. None of the three ministries responded to requests for comment Thursday.

　　除中國財政部的采購規定外，國家發改委和科技部也曾發布過相關規定，以“自主創新”為名建立了一套認證系統，企業為在政府采購項目中成為被考慮對象，只能將自己的產品通過這套系統提交上去。其它規定的情況現在并不清楚。這三大部委周四均沒有回應置評要求。

　　Executives warned that the significance of this week's change will depend on implementation. Ted Dean, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said the announcement was "a very important step" in delinking government procurement from indigenous innovation. But it's unclear whether "other parts of the indigenous-innovation regulatory regime," including the other two ministries involved in these regulations, will follow suit, he said. "We need to watch and see" how it is put into practice at the provincial and city levels, he added.

　　公司高管提醒說，本周的更改聲明是否具有重要意義，將取決于它能否得到有效執行。中國美國商會(American Chamber of Commerce in China)主席狄安華(Ted Dean)說，聲明在政府采購與自主創新的脫鉤方面邁出了很重要的一步。但他說，目前還不清楚自主創新監管體制的其它組成部分(包括這些規定涉及的其它兩個部委)是否也會這么做。他還說，我們應關注這則聲明如何在省市層面得到落實。

　　China's government-procurement rules have been obscure both in their terms and in their scope, leaving unclear, for example, whether they apply to the purchases by China's enormous state-owned companies, and how authorities would define domestic intellectual property when many technology products are developed across several different countries.

　　中國的政府采購規定無論是在條款描述還是應用范圍方面都十分隱晦。例如，人們在讀過之后，仍無法確定這些規定是否適用于中國大型國企的采購，以及如果很多科技產品經由幾個不同國家研發而成，有關當局將如何界定國內的知識產權等。

　　While central government authorities have repeatedly said that foreign companies would be included in considerations for accreditation and treated equally to Chinese companies, foreign companies complained that some local governments were excluding them from procurement catalogs anyway. Industry groups representing most of the world's major technology companies have therefore continued to press the central government to reconsider the indigenous-innovation procurement policies, saying the rules were onerous and discriminatory and violate Beijing's commitments to resist protectionism.

　　雖然中央政府有關部門者一再說，外國企業將被納入產品認證的考慮范圍且將與中國企業得到同等待遇，但外企卻抱怨說，即使如此，有些地方政府還是把它們排除在采購目錄之外。代表全球大多數主要技術企業利益的行業組織因此繼續給中國政府施壓，要求它重新考慮自主創新的采購政策。這些組織說，采購政策的相關規定十分繁瑣，帶有一定的歧視性，不符合北京抵制保護主義的承諾。

　　China is a World Trade Organization member, but it hasn't signed on to the WTO's voluntary Agreement on Government Procurement that bars discrimination against foreign companies bidding on government projects.

　　中國是世界貿易組織(WTO)成員，但還沒有簽署該組織自愿性的政府采購協議(Agreement on Government Procurement)。該協議禁止歧視那些競標政府項目的外國企業。

　　"Ultimately, the best safeguard of a transparent government procurement process would be China's accession to the Government Procurement Agreement," Mr. Dean said. "We urge China to move forward with a robust revised accession offer that can form the basis for negotiations on China's accession."

　　狄安華說，說到底，保障政府采購程序透明化的最佳措施就是讓中國簽署政府采購協議，我們敦促中國積極行動，拿出一個強有力的經修訂的簽署提議，這可作為中國簽署該協議的談判基礎。