Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons^™

Since November 2009, China has passed the United States to become the biggest automobile market in the world. At the same time, China has also surpassed Japan as the largest automobile manufacturer around the world with an annual manufacture capacity of 13.759 million automobiles. In consideration of the importance of the Chinese automobile market, several international automobile giants, including Volkswagen, Toyota, GM, Chrysler, Ford and so on, are injecting more and more capitals, technology and other kind of resources into Chinese market in order to seize a bigger market share within China to leverage their business performance on a global …

On 23 December 2008, the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) and Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) of People’s Republic of China jointly issued Catalogue of Foreign Investment Advantageous Industries in Central and Western China (“Central and Western Catalogue”), which became effective on 1 January 2009. This marks the second revision to the Central and Western Catalogue since its first promulgation in 2000 (the previous revision occurred in 2004). The Central and Western Catalogue was issued to supplement the Foreign Investment Industrial Guidance Catalogue (“Guidance Catalogue”) which was jointly revised by NDRC and MOFCOM on 31 October 2007 and became effective …

On February 26, 2010, the Ministry of Commerce of China (“MOFCOM”) issued the Guiding Opinions on 2010 Outbound Investment and Cooperation indicating that non-financial outbound direct investment amount increased by 6.5% from $40.7 billion in 2008 to $43.3 billion in 2009. Against the background of the severe international financial crisis and economic downturn in 2009, such growth of outbound investment is remarkable around the world. On March 28, 2010, after a drawn-out negotiation, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd (“Geely Group”) executed a definitive agreement with Ford Motor Company (“Ford”) in the presence of Li Yizhong, Minister of the Ministry …